How to use text box as date in ADO.NET - asp.net

Question

I have an ASP.NET wizard where a user fills in their personal details and the values of the text boxes are inserted into a MS SQL record.
However, when inserting the record, I get the following error:
SQL Server error #241: Conversion failed when converting date and/or
time from character string
Code:
string insertSQL;
insertSQL = "INSERT INTO member (";
insertSQL += "UserId, mem_dob,) ";
insertSQL += "VALUES (";
insertSQL += "#UserId, #mem_dob";
insertSQL += ")";
SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection(connectionString);
SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(insertSQL, con);
//Add the parameters.
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("#UserId", providerIdKeyString);
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("#mem_dob", DateOfBirth.Text);
Any ideas the best way to fix? Should I not be using a text box but something else?
I wanted to keep the web form simple - it validates the dates OK so thought the date should be valid.
Thanks

Answer 1

You should simply parse the Text to a valid DateTime.
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("#mem_dob", DateTime.Parse(DateOfBirth.Text));
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1k1skd40%28v=VS.100%29.aspx
Of course you should have already validated that the entered "date" is valid at this stage.

Answer 2

Sounds like the date entered in your Text Box is an invalid date according to SQL. Before attempting to add the date as a parameter, first check it's validity. e.g.
DateTime myDate;
if(textBox1.TryParse(DateOfBirth.Text, out myDate))
{
// Date is valid.
} else
{
// Take corrective actions to fix the date.
}
Simply attempting to parse the date without knowing whether it's valid or not will leave your application open to a failure, as you simply shouldn't trust the user to enter a valid date.

Answer 3

DateTime t;
String Date = String.Empty;
if (DateTime.TryParse(Date, out t))
{
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("#mem_dob", t);
}

Answer 4

You should have to create simple user-control that contains three dropdown controls - for day, month and year and a public property/method to set/get date. You may think about ASP.NET Ajax controls.
In case if you want to use Textbox then restrict the user input via CompareValidator control or some sort of JavaScript and regular expression.
To parse date string use DateTime.TryParse, or DateTime.ParseExact (DateTime.TryParseExact) method.
string[] inputFormat = {"dd-MM-yy","dd/mm/yy","dd-MMM-yyyy"};
string userDate = "31-12-11";
DateTime date;
if (DateTime.TryParseExact(userDate,
inputFormat,
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
DateTimeStyles.None,
out date))
{
//valid
}