Thank you for your replies.
The general response was that it was important to have the dates correctly formatted in Excel first. If I do that there is little problem, even for 2000 or 2001; unfortunately one often gets XL files where formatting is not clear. Furthermore if a date is entered incorrectly Excel may simply put it as a string rather than record an error.
The recommended method is to use the ODBC facilities to access the Excel file.
The internal storage is totally different; SPSS (like Unix I think) uses 'seconds since Oct 1785' or some such date, whereas Excel uses days starting at 1st Jan 1900. (Apparently Excel for Macintosh starts in 1904). I have succeeded in performing the conversion using SPSS' date functions.
Thank you
Phil
Phil McShane
Nuffield dept of Surgery
John Radcliffe Hosp
Headington
Oxford
OX3 9DU
01865 220042
8 Manor Way
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