The problem is in the gridview the date is displayed as mm/dd/yyyy 12:00:00 which not the desired format.

You can set the display format in the gridview.  From the GV smart tag, click on Edit Columns, click on the column  name (in the bottom left-hand window) that contains the date field you want to format, the properties for the column are displayed in the right panel, you can type in a format expression in the DataFormatString field.  Optionally, you can click the Convert to Template Field, then manage the format in each of the Item, Insert, Update templates.

In the DateFormatSting I have put in "mm/dd/yyyy" and mm/dd/yyyy and neither of these worked is there some thing else I should try?

Have you tried to put {0:d} in DateFormatSting ?

Good addition jpaulino.  That should do it.

I tried {0:d} ,"{0:d}" , {0:c}, and "{0:c}" and no change.  the item is still 7/19/07 12:00:00 AM when it should be just 7/19/07 like it is returned in the test connection.

Can you post your code ?

Try this: (\d{1,2}\/\d{1,2}\/\d{4})

This is a good resource for expression codes:
http://regexlib.com

Steveishere: I tried your string (\d{1,2}\/\d{1,2}\/\d{4}) and got an error rendering control.
Ipaulino: this is the section of code that holds the DataFormatString, here is the{0:d} that did not work. it is about the 6th line down.


<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False" DataKeyNames="messageID"
                    DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1">
                    <Columns>
                        <asp:BoundField DataField="date" HeaderText="date"
                            SortExpression="date" DataFormatString="{0:d}" />
                        <asp:BoundField DataField="name" HeaderText="name" SortExpression="name" />
                        <asp:BoundField DataField="email" HeaderText="email" SortExpression="email" />
                        <asp:BoundField DataField="messageText" HeaderText="messageText" SortExpression="messageText" />
                    </Columns>
                </asp:GridView>

My bad. The parenthesis should not be used.
How about:
SortExpression="date" DataFormatString="\d{1,2}\/\d{1,2}\/\d{4}" />

Try to set the HtmlEncode = False ...