To solve the problem I defined the following local variables

Thisform.txtTransDate.Value is the date entered by the user.

ldDate		= Thisform.txtTransDate.Value
ldDateType	= VARTYPE(ldDate) 
ldDate		= IIF(ldDateType = "D" , DTOC(ldDate) , ldDate)
lnMonth 	= MONTH(CTOD(ldDate))
lnDay 		= DAY(CTOD(ldDate))
lnYear 		= VAL(IIF(EMPTY(ALLTRIM(RIGHT(ldDate,4))),'0',RIGHT(ldDate,4)))
lnLenYear	= IIF(EMPTY(lnYear),0,LEN(ALLTRIM(STR(lnYear))))

and do the following test

IF lnMonth = 0 OR lnDay = 0 OR lnYear = 0 OR lnLenYear <> 4
     error processing and message
ENDIF

Is there a reason that the above would not work?

Thanks for all the suggestions