Proc Import of Date Variables from an Excel XLSX file are coming into my dataset as random numbers

[InspectahDex]

I have an excel spreadsheet (.xlsx) that has a few fields that are supposed to be dates. Most cells are in a MM/DD/YYYY format but there are other cells that have the word "NULL".  When I do a PROC IMPORT, all of the fields come in as character variables and all of the date values are turned into random numbers like 34563. How can I import these date values as the values that they are using PROC IMPORT? Guessingrows doesn't work. 

[SASKiwi · Accepted solution]

Change the Excel column type of the date columns to "Date" and see if that helps. Having non-missing dates in the first few rows may also help.

[InspectahDex]

The solution wasn't exactly this but it led me on the right track: I replaced the word "NULL" from the excel spreadsheet and reran the SAS program. My date fields were then imported properly.

[SASKiwi]

OK. The typical I'll accept anything you type into a column problem with Excel. AFAIK you can't "lock" the type of column to only accept valid data for that type.