Date format issue when pasting from clipboard as "Paste with Column Names" (Day and Month swapped)

Question

Hi everyone,

I am having trouble pasting data from the clipboard into JMP. My source data uses the European date format (DD.MM.YYYY).

When I paste the data, JMP misinterprets the dates using the US format (MM.DD.YYYY). For example, 04.05.2026 (May 4th) is incorrectly imported as April 5th. This happens for all days below the 13th of a month.  And the column is formated as Nominal.

Is there a way to permanently force JMP to use the DMY input format for clipboard operations without having to manually fix the column properties or use text import preview every time?

Thanks for your help!

christian-z · Answer

Hi @PredictiveRules, I'm glad you were able to find a workaround. Can I ask where you are copying from? If possible, I would recommend importing instead of copy+paste. In my experience, JMP is better at guessing the correct date and time formatting on import.

Another idea is to change the format you are copying from, if possible, to something like "02 Jun 2026", making it easier for JMP to recognize the format.

This setting in the Preferences may also be relevant:

In any case, being familiar with the display format and input format concepts described in this link is a useful skill in JMP, as these kinds of date/time formatting issues tend to come up again and again. Once I became familiar with all the concepts from that article, working with "Datetimes" in JMP became much easier.

PredictiveRules · Answer

Hi everyone,

I actually had the same issue before . At one point I had two tensions at the same time — one was this JMP date format problem, and the second was when Fully Reversible UPVC Windows were being installed at my house .

For the JMP issue, what helped me was changing the locale/date preferences so JMP reads dates in DMY format instead of the default US MDY style. Since your column is formatted as Nominal, JMP is probably treating the values as text first and then guessing the format incorrectly during paste.

A workaround that reduced the issue for me was:

* Change the column modeling type from Nominal to Continuous before pasting

* Set the input format to DMY manually once

* Or import as text first and then apply the date format

Sadly, I never found a fully permanent clipboard-only fix either, but adjusting the locale/preferences made it happen far less often.

Hope JMP adds a proper “always use DMY” clipboard option someday :D

christian-z · Answer

Using dates, times, datetimes and durations in JMP - JMP User Community