Format a column of dates

why not expand your applescript thinking to combine all the CSV files together and do one import, then format (manually or Applescript) the one column? i.e. Why stop at just the simplest step of formatting a column? If your going to automate it, automate the whole process from start to end.

to see how to use applescript to format a cell, you can visit a site like this one, which i think even apples website links to somewhere...

https://iworkautomation.com/numbers/cell-format.html

Jason

It is easy to use a short script "fix" the column of dates associated with historical stock prices.

However, as posted above, it is necessary to know:

• The date format is in the csv file. Is year is it mm/dd/yy, dd/mm/yy or something else? (It's hard to tell from your post, and a csv file does not have "Automatic.")
• The date formats used in the settings for your region. (I was guessing Numbers doesn't recognize the dates as true date-time because the month and day are in a different order from what is used in your region. But then you seem to suggest Numbers is already giving them an Automatic format, which would mean it does recognize them as dates).

SG

I took the data you posted, copy-pasted it into TextEdit, and saved as csv file. Then I opened that file with Numbers. I got this:

The values in the date column were left-aligned, and as can be seen lower-left Numbers guessed they were text.

But all I had to do was select the values in the column and give them a Data Format of Date & Time.

Numbers then recognized them as dates, which can be sorted as dates.

SG

What is the format of the "date" in the csv file? And what date format do you use in your region?

Once you provide these a simple solution can be provided. For this problem no need to get involved in somewhat complicated scripting.

SG

To run an AppleScript you need to select the cells and trigger the script, either via a 'run' button, a menu choice, or a keyboard shortcut.

To use the built-in Numbers formatting, you need to select the cells and make a menu choice in the format panel.

In this case I think you will find the built-in formatting, as described, to be just as easy.

One could write a script that selects the csv file, has Numbers open it, and then formats the column. But unless you are doing this operation many times a minute I don't think spending the time to write a script makes much sense.

SG

Yes, there is definitely be way to format a whole column as date, but what is the format of the "date" in the csv file? And what date format do you use in your region?

SG