converting varchar to date from asp.net to sort

for some odd reason our other programmer used varchar datatype to store dates. he claims it gives him more control. now i am trying to sort it based on date. so i create a procedure:

CREATE PROCEDURE GetAllWeekEnding

AS
Select convert(datetime, we) as we2 FROM tblArchive order by we2
GO

if i use the convert function in the procedure, i'll get an error msg when i run the code. this is the code i am using.

Dim MyConnection As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection(ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings("ConnectionStringSQL"))
Dim MyCommand As SqlCommand

MyCommand = New SqlCommand("GetAllWeekEnding", MyConnection)
MyCommand.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure
MyConnection.Open()

Dim mydr As SqlDataReader = MyCommand.ExecuteReader()
While mydr.Read()
DropDownList1.Items.Add(mydr("we2"))
End While

mydr.Close()
MyConnection.Close()

the error message is: No accessible overloaded 'ListItemCollection.Add' can be called without a narrowing conversion

any ideas?the .Add method expects a ListItem or a String. Try:

DropDownList1.Items.Add(mydr("we2").ToString())

Is there any reason you are not just binding to myDr?|||<<<<Is there any reason you are not just binding to myDr? >>>
yes, when i bind to the listbox, i am getting date and time.

i can get rid of the time by using:

While mydr.Read()
DropDownList1.Items.Add(Format(mydr("we2"), "M/dd/yyyy").ToString)
End While|||You could easily use Convert to convert the datetime to a date only (of type varchar()) in SQL Server in the SP if the only purpose of this SP is to feed this DDL.|||<<<<<You could easily use Convert to convert the datetime to a date only (of type varchar()) in SQL Server in the SP if the only purpose of this SP is to feed this DDL.
>>>>
the problem is that the date is already in varchar datatype in the database. on the aspx page, i want to load all the dates and i want it sorted by date. the only way for me to show the dates on the aspx page sorted by date is to convert the date from varchar to datetime, like this:

CREATE PROCEDURE GetAllWeekEnding

AS
Select Distinct convert(datetime, we) as we2 FROM tblArchive order by we2 desc
GO

once varchar is converted to datetime, it not only shows just the date but also time so i cannot bind it to a dropDownList.

if i just bind the orginal varchar on the DropDownList witout converting it to DateTime, it's not going to be sorted because you cannot sort a varchar like you sort a datetime|||CREATE PROCEDURE GetAllWeekEnding

AS
Select Distinct CONVERT(nvarchar(20),convert(datetime, we),101) as we2 FROM tblArchive order by convert(datetime, we) desc
GO

There is no rule that the representation you SELECT needs to be the same as you use to ORDER BY.