diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index f8d77e73..56ae61a7 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -29,7 +29,9 @@
   (`NMorderColumn()`) and the auto-generated `$INPUT` section
   suggestions. Where applicable, the `allow.char.TIME` argument
   controls this behavior. Set to `allow.char.TIME=FALSE` to require
-  `TIME` and `DATE` columns be numeric.
+  `TIME` and `DATE` columns be numeric. Thanks to Sanaya Shroff for
+  the request, enabling `NMsim` to simulate using data sets with one
+  or more of these columns coded as character.
 
 * `mergeCheck(x,y)` has new options for handling common columns in
   data sets. The `common.cols` argument replaces `fun.commoncols` with
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test_NMorderColumns.R b/tests/testthat/test_NMorderColumns.R
index 0a15265b..b6dbae5d 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test_NMorderColumns.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test_NMorderColumns.R
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ test_that("last NULL",{
     fileRef <- "testReference/NMorderColumns_01.rds"
 
     ## pk <- readRDS(file=system.file("examples/data/xgxr2.rds",package="NMdata"))
-    pk <- readRDS(file="testData/data/xgxr2.rds")
+    pk <- readRDS(file="testData/data/xgxr2.rds")|> setDT()
 
     pk1 <- NMorderColumns(pk)
     pk2 <- NMorderColumns(pk,last=c("FLAG",NULL))
@@ -26,8 +26,7 @@ test_that("Non-numeric DATE and TIME",{
 
     fileRef <- "testReference/NMorderColumns_02.rds"
 
-##    pk <- readRDS(file=system.file("examples/data/xgxr2.rds",package="NMdata"))
-    pk <- readRDS(file="testData/data/xgxr2.rds")
+    pk <- readRDS(file="testData/data/xgxr2.rds") |> setDT()
 
     pk[,time.tz:=as.POSIXct("2000/01/01")+TIME*3600]
     pk[,DATE:=as.character(as.Date(time.tz),format="%y/%m/%d")]
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test_NMwriteData.R b/tests/testthat/test_NMwriteData.R
index 41e8ee89..e2b36b45 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test_NMwriteData.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test_NMwriteData.R
@@ -79,7 +79,8 @@ test_that("Dropping a column in Nonmem",{
 
 test_that("A comma in a character",{
 
-    pk <- readRDS(file=system.file("examples/data/xgxr2.rds",package="NMdata"))
+    ## pk <- readRDS(file=system.file("examples/data/xgxr2.rds",package="NMdata"))
+    pk <- readRDS(file="testData/data/xgxr2.rds") |> setDT()
     ## dropping a character column
     pk[,CYCLE:=paste0(as.character(CYCLE),",0")]
 
@@ -96,7 +97,7 @@ test_that("A comma in a character",{
 
 test_that("Identical column names",{
 
-    pk <- readRDS(file=system.file("examples/data/xgxr2.rds",package="NMdata"))
+    pk <- readRDS(file="testData/data/xgxr2.rds") |> setDT()
     pk <- cbind(pk[,.(CYCLE)],pk)
     expect_warning(NMwriteData(pk,file="testOutput/NMwriteDataTmp.csv"
                               ,write.rds=F,write.csv=F
@@ -309,7 +310,7 @@ test_that("Non-numeric DATE and TIME",{
     fileRef <- "testReference/NMwriteData_13.rds"
     outfile <- "testOutput/NMwriteData_13.csv"
     
-    pk <- readRDS(file=system.file("examples/data/xgxr2.rds",package="NMdata"))
+    pk <- readRDS(file="testData/data/xgxr2.rds") |> setDT()
 
     pk[,time.tz:=as.POSIXct("2000/01/01")+TIME*3600]
     pk[,DATE:=as.character(as.Date(time.tz),format="%y/%m/%d")]