Reading data in from excel (eviews 8)

[bjohn]

I am trying to read data in from excel (each row is a country, each column is a quarter)

I can read the numbers in OK, but I need to find a way to tell eviews that the top row contains the quarters of the observations (1990Q1, 1990Q2, etc etc).

I need to use this date information to tell eviews when the first and last dates of my workfile are (I can't do this manually because I am reading in many different sheets, hence the need to automate)

How I can read in the data from the top row? It doesn't matter so much what form its in, because once its in the workfile I can manipulate it. I just needs eviews to read in the top row somehow!

Many thanks

[bjohn]

For clarificaiton- I am looking for an appropriate line or two for my programme- rather than a menu based solution.

[EViews Gareth]

Both the wfopen and the import commands let you specify the range of Excel cells you want to bring into EViews. However, it is going to be quite tricky to do the manipulation inside EViews, since each column will be a different series.

You could also use the Read command, which allows you to transpose the data, but that would require knowing the number of columns you have in your Excel file before hand.