title: Importing a datetime field from csv/txt into Access
body: <p>I have the output of a SQL Server 2008 query saved to a text file and I am trying to link it to an Access database (Access 2007-2010).</p>
  
  <p>The text file contains two date columns in the SQL Server 2008 <code>datetime</code> format, like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>EFFECTIVE START DATE:
  ---------------------
  2013-07-01 00:00:00.000 
  
  EFFECTIVE END DATE:
  -------------------
  2014-06-30 00:00:00.000
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In the Import wizard, I click Advanced and change the following:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Code Page = Western European (Window) instead of Unicode (UTF-8)</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>For the 2 <code>datetime</code> columns:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>data type = Date/Time</li>
  <li>date order = YMT</li>
  <li>Date delimiter = -</li>
  <li>Leading zeros in dates = ticked</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>While still in the import wizard the data looks fine but as soon as the import is finished and I open the table in Access, I see <em>#Num!</em> in the two date columns.</p>
  
  <p>I have tried a combination of settings in the import wizard (leave the code page as Unicode, not change the date order, not ticking the leading zeros in dates, etc) but in the end I had to import the dates as text, which stops me from doing any calculations now.</p>
  
  <p>Many thanks in advance for the help </p>