The reason the alltrim works is that the data type of the field (P) in the newly created dbf (from the import command) is "U". Why the value changes so dramatically, then picks up AM (probably defaulting to the first occurence of 9:00 in a day) is what's messing me up most. I have NO control over how what could be in that field of the spreadsheet is formatted when a user opts to import the file, and I want to avoid having them have to mess with it first. Thanks, Martha