Txt File Field DDMMYYYY Fails To Import Into Access'07, But OK In 2003

Hi there anyone and everyone.

My problem concerns importing a date from a txt file. I've been doing this for years with '97 and 2003 with no problem, but with 2007 I am now getting import errors which I can't resolve. The files, either fixed width or delimited, contain date information in the format ddmmyyyy (without any date separators). After importing I receive an import error message, and the relevant field in the table is blank.

In Access '97 or 2003 I can import date information directly into an Access date/time field by using an import specification where I have set the date delimiter to blank (by default this is set to "/" , so I simply delete this to leave the box empty). Using this method a file containing "25122007" (without the inverted commas) will be imported into Access as a date, and can be subsequently manipulated as date without having to resort to any fancy reformatting tricks. Obviously the import will not be sucessful if the date delimiter in the import spec is left as "/", or set to anything else, eg "." or ":".

But now that I've updated to Access 2007 this is just not possible no matter what I do or try. I can only import a date if the txt data has a separator, and that the same separator is set in the import specification.


In some new databases I have done a couple of workarounds, importing it as text into a text field, then using a CDate(Format(CLng([date]),"00/00/0000")) type expression in a subsequent query, but this is a pain having to do it, a really backward step.

But the real pain is older databases ('97 or 2003) which have been converted up to '07; they no longer work, and there is a lot of redesign to be done unless somone can tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Unfortunately I am not able to change the format of the dates in the data I receive, so the solution has to come from my end (ie Access). Surely Access 2007 should be able to recognise 25122007 as a date? All ideas gratefully received.

I've been happily using various versions of Access since 1994 and I've learnt lots along the way, and have always previously been able to sort out problems that I've come across without resorting to a forum, but I'm now really puzzled by a problem that I have come across in Access 2007. So although this is my first post I certainly wouldn't call myself a newbie. Hopefully I have described the problem accurately (it is realy simple in fact), but very happy to provide more information if required.

Many thanks (in anticipation)

Benjy