Date/Time Formatting
In addition to numbers and text, dates and times are format types in Surfer. Dates and times can be used to create a grid, as axis and plot labels, and to set axis limits.
Using Date/Time Formatting
To use dates and times in Surfer, the data need to be formatted as dates and times. One way to format data in Surfer is to use the worksheet. The worksheet can be accessed with the File | New | Worksheet or File | Open command. Highlight the column containing dates and times and select Data | Format | Format Cells to set the column as date/time in the worksheet. On the Number tab, select Date/time as the Type. Next, type the appropriate Date/Time format option, or click the 
button and select or create a date/time format in the Date/Time Format Builder dialog.
Once the formatting is set to date/time, you can use the date/time information just as you would use numbers in Surfer:
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you can create a post map of the data using date/time values
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you can set the map limits using date/time values
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you can grid date/time values
Date/time information can also be used as labels anywhere in the map layer or as axis tick labels.
Date/Time formats are made of combinations of year, month, day, hours, minutes, seconds, BC/AD or BCE/CE designation,and AM/PM designation. Years are shown as yy or yyyy. Months are shown as M, MM, MMM, MMMM, or MMMMM. Days are shown as d, dd, ddd, or dddd. Hours are shown as h, hh, H, HH, or [h]. Minutes are shown as m, mm, or [mm]. Seconds are shown as ss, ss.0, ss.00, ss.000, ss.0000, or [ss]. AM/PM designation is shown as tt or TT. BC/AD designation is shown as gg or GG. BCE/CE designation is shown as g, G, ggg, or GGG. See the Date Time Formats help topic for examples of date/time formats.
Date/Time Formatting Tips
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In the worksheet, save data files containing date/time formatting as Excel files to preserve the date time formatting as seen in the worksheet.
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You can save date/time-formatted data files as ASCII files (.DAT, .CSV, .TXT, .BNA, or BLN). Sometimes this is necessary if you exceed the Excel row or column limits. When opening the file in Surfer's worksheet, you can make the serial numbers appear as dates by using Data | Format | Format Cells.
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If you have formatted the data as date/time in another spreadsheet program such as Excel, the data are formatted as date/time in Surfer.
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Whenever possible, enter and display dates and times in one of the many calendar formats, e.g., "6/14/2009” or “14-June-2009”, and let the software handle converting to/from internal numeric representations.
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When the recognized format is ambiguous (i.e. 10/7/12), the month, day, and year order is determined by the Windows locale. In some countries, this will be recognized as M/d/yy, in others as d/M/yy, and in others as YY/M/d. It is important to use non-ambiguous date/time formats when the Windows locale may change.
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The year 0 is defined, according to the ISO 8601:2004 standard.
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If dates/times occur before 1/1/0000, use the BC or BCE suffix after the date. So, Alexander III of Macedon's birthday would be listed as 20-July-356 BCE in the worksheet. Using AD or CE is not necessary and the worksheet will automatically remove these in dates after 1/1/0000.
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When a two digit year is input in the worksheet (00 to 99), it means the year in the current century. For instance, inputting 11/4/13, indicates that the year is 2013, not 0013. In order to have the year 0013, the full four digits (0013) must be input for the date. So, the date would be input as 11/4/0013 CE for November 4, 0013 CE or 11/4/0013 BCE for November 4, 0013 BCE.