Export and Import DateObjects

Question

I have a number of long lists of DateObjects paired with values. An example data element looks like this:

It takes several hours of processing time to generate these lists and as I can reuse them, I want to save them so I can Import them as needed rather than recalculating them.

I tried exporting the data lists:

Export[".../Index model/sp.CSV", sp,"CSV"];

Upon then:

Import[".../Index model/sp.CSV","CSV"]

I get elements that look like the following:

{"DateObject[{1977, 2, 15, 0, 0, 0.}, \"Instant\", \"Gregorian\", \
-5.]", 101.04}

Which does not give me an immediately computable DateObject.

I appreciate that I can derive a DateObject from this imported data, but that defeats some of the purpose in exporting the data in the first place.

Does someway exist so I can Export DateObjects that stay DateObjects on Import?

Answer 1

$Version

(* "13.2.1 for Mac OS X ARM (64-bit) (January 27, 2023)" *)

Clear["Global`*"]

SeedRandom[1234];

dates = RandomDate[DateObject[List[2022], "Year"], 5] // Sort

Export["test.tsv", dates, "Text"]

(* "test.tsv" *)

dates2 = Import["test.tsv"] // ToExpression // Flatten;

They are identical,

dates === dates2

(* True *)