Date formats interpreted inconsistently

[johfc]

It seems that WinMerge inconsistently applies date formats to text (eg in csv files) at least for the format aa-bb-cccc which implies the date format dd-mm-yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy if so interpreted. WinMerge will interpret either format with a preference for mm-dd-yyyy and only use dd-mm-yyyy when the former is invalid. This is inconsistent behaviour.

I have created the following files to demonstrate:

1. Dates dd-mm-yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy.csv - csv that contains a sample of text separated as follows: aa,bb,cccc,aa-bb-cccc
2. Dates dd-mm-yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy.xlsx - Excel spreadsheet (xlsx) from the csv file above
3. Dates dd-mm-yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy - saved with Excel.csv - saved with Excel.csv" - csv saved in Excel to show how Excel modifies the csv contents!

If files 1 and 2 are compared in WinMerge, there are differences in the interpretation of implied date formats that are not apparent in the source files.

File 3 demonstrates how Excel modifies the contents of a csv file, which is unexpected.

[sdottaka]

Fixed this issue with commit 3782b0d.

If you replace the C:\Program Files\WinMerge\MergePlugins\CompareMSExcelFiles.sct file with the following files, it will work as expected.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WinMerge/winmerge/master/Plugins/dlls/CompareMSExcelFiles.sct

Thank you for the report.