deployment - Excel Import Data from Analysis Services - Date comes across as text -

i'm trying use (exercise) ssas tabular model in excel. model contains column date, in proporties window data type date , date format general. when import data excel date column seems come across text.

to import, open excel, go data -> external data -> other sources -> analysis services

after data gets imported, date column contains text representations of date. "group" section of pivottable options tab greyed out, , sort a-z. how data type come across?

analysis services delivers attribute names strings. either build own mdx query extract, instead of relying on default import wizard query. in custom query, convert name measure of date data type. similar this:

with member measures.mydate      cdate([datedim].[dateattrib].currentmember.name) select { measures.mydate } on columns,        [datedim].[dateattrib].[dateattrib].members on rows   [mycubename] 

or, within tabular model, build calculated column in date format, i. e. create calculated column expression

datevalue([origdatecolwhichistext]) 

and make original column invisible.

in cases, converting date strings dates may locale setting sensitive.