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Re: CSV import, date format incorrect

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pascalmaier
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

I have a table of transactions with a date, the date is formatted in dd/mm/yyyy.

I want to import more transactions from a CSV, the CSV is also formatted in dd/mm/yyyy.

Simple import right? Wrong!

On the import mapping page, the CSV data is being picked up as mm/dd/yyyy even though nothing in my base is in that format. As a result it's confusing the dates and losing half of them.

The only way I can make this work, is to change the date field to a single line text, import the data, then change it back to a date in dd/mm/yyyy.

Am I missing something or is this a bug?

Pics:
My table:

pascalmaier_0-1739258917931.png

My CSV file:

pascalmaier_1-1739258947908.png

The import page:

pascalmaier_2-1739259055707.png

It's not even getting the month correct.

Very frustrating

 

 

 

4 Replies 4
ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

@pascalmaier

Airtable is expecting your dates in your CSV file to be formatted like this: YYYY-MM-DD

However, your current date formatting might work if you use Airtable’s CSV extension, which is Airtable’s most fully-featured CSV import tool (and it’s the method that has received the most attention & bug fixes from Airtable).

Otherwise, if none of the above works for you, you will always be able to import your CSV files properly using Make’s CSV tools, but you will just need to specify the date formatting in your import using Make’s date format function.

I give step-by-step instructions on how to import CSV files using Make on this Airtable podcast episode. (I don’t cover the date format function in my video, so let me know if you need guidance on that.)

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire the best Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld

Interesting!  As a data point, I'm using the CSV Import extension and importing into a Date field that's set as 'Friendly', and it shows me this:

Screenshot 2025-02-11 at 6.52.21 PM.png

And this is my csv:

date
01/12/2025
12/12/2025

 So it looks like we're getting different behaviour here somehow.  Any chance you could send me your CSV file and I could try to import it with the CSV Import extension so that I could test it out?

ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

As I mentioned above, there are 3 key approaches for solving this problem:

1. The CSV file should have date formatting of YYYY-MM-DD

2. The CSV Import extension might be more forgiving of different date formats (as opposed to Airtable’s other methods of importing CSV file), so this import method should be tried.

3. If all else fails, this can always be accomplished with Make’s CSV tools.

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire the best Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld 

DisraeliGears01
7 - App Architect
7 - App Architect

Interesting, I've done a ton of straight up copy/pasting from CSVs and as long as the date field is formatted to dd/mm/yyyy it picks it up no problem.