That would work, Kevin ... but you still have the problem of converting your date string. I can't understand why the DateTime.Parse() method is not working for you ... I just tried it myself and this comes up with a valid date:

	string  date = "24-Dec-04";
	DateTime startdate = DateTime.Parse(date);
	MessageBox.Show(startdate.ToString());

~~Bonnie

>>I hope someone with a little more WebForm experience than I can jump into this thread and help you out. I'm out of ideas at the moment. =(
>
>Thanks for persisting with me.
>
>I'm maybe thinking that I should try sorting on those dates in the VFP DTOS() format, so 24-Dec-04 becomes 20041224. I presume that this can be done by manipulating the string, and that the sorting code you originally suggested would work (with the datetimes changed to strings)?
>
>Kevin