====== Importing Dates into Sentori ====== 

Problems can occur when importing dates due to the different ways applications store them.

Examples of this might be:
  * Sentori preventing you from mapping the column by displaying an error when you try.
  * day and month parts of your values are swapped, giving you either a different date date or an invalid one, e.g. if your data was intended to represent 1st February 2000 it might be incorrectly interpreted as 2nd January 2000.

This article describes how to ensure your date values are correctly imported into Sentori.

**Dates being imported must be in the format DD/MM/YYYY**

Some examples of this:

^Value^Represented Date^
|25/12/2010|25th December 2010|
|01/03/1980|1st March 1980|


===== Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets =====

While your data may //appear// to be in the required **DD/MM/YYYY** format when you open an Excel spreadsheet file, it may not actually be //stored// in the correct way for Sentori to access it.

To ensure it is, the simplest option is to use Excel's **Text to Columns** feature.

Here's how:
  * open your spreadsheet in Excel
  * select the whole column that contains your date values
  * go to the **Data** tab on the Excel "ribbon" and click **Text to Columns**
  * a popup window will open for the **Convert Text to Columns Wizard**
  * Use these options:
    * **Step 1 of 3** \\ Choose "Delimited". \\ Click Next. \\
    * 	**Step 2 of 3** \\ Leave all the default settings. \\ Click Next. \\
    * 	**Step 3 of 3** \\ Select "Date" and "DMY". \\ Click Finish. \\


===== Comma Separated Values (CSV) File =====

Different applications create CSV files in different ways, but the key result is for the date values to appear as follows when the CSV file is opened in a simple text editor:

<code>
Email,DateValue
"me@example.com",15/01/2018
"other@example.com",24/06/2018
</code>

If it's surrounded by any type of quotes, then Sentori probably won't be able to read it as a date.