title: Format date string programatically in DevExpress gridview vb.net
body: <p>I have a date that is displayed like so in a gridview from DevExpress : 20071031 (YYYYMMDD*) and I would like it to appear as 2007/10/31 in the gridview.  </p>
  
  <p>*Data was imported from sql server table as Varchar.  </p>
  
  <p>I've tried the following but it doesn't do anything, date still appears as YYYMMDD.</p>
  
  <pre><code>gridview.Columns("CloseDate").DisplayFormat.FormatType = FormatType.DateTime
  gridview.Columns("CloseDate").DisplayFormat.FormatString = "d"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I also know that the following would work to convert a string to the required Date format (However I can not apply this to my situation).</p>
  
  <pre><code>Dim strDate As String = DateTime.ParseExact("20071117", "yyyyMMdd", Nothing).ToString("MM\/dd\/yyyy")
  </code></pre>