Cetin
Thanks, that looks like another way that would keep me in VFP.
I have decided to use "oSheet.saveas(dbfname,8)". It creates a table with the field lengths set in Excel and brings the date fields across correctly. I was having trouble with "append or import from type xl8". A TAB bar was put at the beginning of every field value and it was taking to much time to figure out. Any ideas about that?

Thanks again for the suggestion, Chuck