On the Tools | Spreadsheet Options | Conversions tab, the option Check for date values lets you automatically check new columns for data that appears to be in date format. When selected, Genstat checks all text columns to see if they contain data in date format.
Check for date values can also be enabled/disabled when you paste columns from the clipboard, merge multiple files or append multiple files.
If columns appear to contain data in date format you will be prompted to convert these to dates.
The options on the prompt are as follows:
- Use this response for all subsequent columns – Use the response Yes or No for the other columns in the spreadsheet that look like dates.
- Yes – Convert the text column to a variate column containing dates.
- No – Leave the text column as is.