diff -ru poi.original/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/model/Workbook.java poi/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/model/Workbook.java
--- poi.original/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/model/Workbook.java	2006-01-03 12:41:36.000000000 +0100
+++ poi/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/model/Workbook.java	2006-11-03 21:10:29.000000000 +0100
@@ -103,6 +103,25 @@
 
     private static POILogger   log = POILogFactory.getLogger(Workbook.class);
 
+  /**
+   * The date strings to look for.
+   */
+  private static final String[] dateStrings = new String[]
+  {
+    "dd",
+    "mm",
+    "yy",
+    "hh",
+    "ss",
+    "/m",
+    "m/",
+    "-m",
+    "m-",
+    "/d",
+    "d/",
+    "-d",
+    "d-"
+  };
     /**
      * Creates new Workbook with no intitialization --useless right now
      * @see #createWorkbook(List)
@@ -2221,6 +2234,57 @@
     {
         return drawingManager;
     }
+    
+    public FormatRecord getFormat(final short index) {
+        FormatRecord foundFormat = null;
+        Iterator iterator = formats.iterator();
+        while (iterator.hasNext()) {
+            final FormatRecord format = (FormatRecord) iterator.next();
+            if (format.getIndexCode() == index) {
+                foundFormat = format;
+                break;
+            }
+        }
+        return foundFormat;
+    }
 
-}
+    public boolean isDateFormat(final short index) {
+        boolean isDate = false;
+        final FormatRecord format = getFormat(index);
+        if (format != null) {
+            switch(format.getIndexCode()) {
+                // Internal Date Formats as described on page 427 in
+                // Microsoft Excel Dev's Kit...
+                case 0x0e:
+                case 0x0f:
+                case 0x10:
+                case 0x11:
+                case 0x12:
+                case 0x13:
+                case 0x14:
+                case 0x15:
+                case 0x16:
+                case 0x2d:
+                case 0x2e:
+                case 0x2f:
+                    isDate = true;
+                    break;
 
+                default:
+                    break;
+            }
+
+            if (!isDate) {
+                final String formatString = format.getFormatString().toLowerCase();
+                for (int i = 0; i < dateStrings.length; i++) {
+                    final String dateString = dateStrings[i];
+                    if (formatString.indexOf(dateString) != -1) {
+                        isDate = true;
+                        break;
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        return isDate;
+    }
+}
diff -ru poi.original/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/usermodel/HSSFWorkbook.java poi/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/usermodel/HSSFWorkbook.java
--- poi.original/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/usermodel/HSSFWorkbook.java	2006-07-27 16:15:11.000000000 +0200
+++ poi/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/usermodel/HSSFWorkbook.java	2006-11-03 21:09:50.000000000 +0100
@@ -1279,4 +1279,8 @@
         byte[] bytes = new byte[16];
         return bytes;
     }
+    
+    public boolean isDateFormat(final short index) {
+        return workbook.isDateFormat(index);
+    }
 }