Try

? CTOD( Transform("05012002", "@R 99/99/9999"))
* For STOD
? Evaluate( "{^" + Transform(lcDate, "@R 9999/99/99") + "}")
* or
? Evaluate( Transform(lcDate + " ", "@R {^9999/99/99}"))

>Hi all,
>
>I have a character field that is a date in mmddyyyy format. I need to sort the file by this serv_date field.
>
>There is a DTOS (Date To String) command, but no inverse STOD (String To Date).