EViews.com

I am importing data into a workfile and want the program to switch to an American date format for import and switch back to European afterwards. I can do this manually using options/general options/date representation. Was just wondering if there is some code I can use to automate this process?

There isn't a command to do it, no. However you can probably read in the dates correctly without needing to change that option.

Just to clarify I am fetching directly from a Haver database that is using the American format for its daily data. Because I am working in the european format I am getting the illegal date error.

Fetching from a Haver database shouldn't rely on your date option at all. Haver stores dates as YYYYMMDD, as far as we know, and EViews will translate that into whatever option you have.

Could you provide more precise details on exactly what you're doing (including the name of the Haver database etc...)?