Is Date data type supported by the ImportData method (MP2002)? (I think not)

I am successfully importing a tab delimited file containing Long., Lat. and Date/Time (and other) fields into a dataset but then cannot map the data using DisplayDataMap to show points colour/symbol coded by date. Other fields, containing numeric or string data, can be mapped OK. The import seems to know that the date/time field is data type 7, but the mapping seems not to be able to do anything constructive with them.

Is there another way?

Does latest MP support Date data type?

TIA

M.