title: DataTable.Select with converting string value to Date format and sort it
body: <p>I have a data table that is being returned by a 3rd party component, so I have no way of changing the SQL string to get what I want. So, I get a table with several columns, all of them are Strings. One of the columns is <strong>BILLDATE</strong> which is of type string, but actually holds a date in a <strong>MM/DD/YYYY</strong> format.</p>
  
  <p>Issue: I need to sort the records in descending order and pick the record with the biggest date.</p>
  
  <p>CODE:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Dim dataRows As DataRow()
  Dim dt As New DataTable
  dt = GetTable()
  dataRows = dt.Select("", "BILLDATE DESC")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Sample data:</p>
  
  <pre><code>10/23/2010
  9/23/2010
  8/23/2010
  7/23/2010
  6/23/2010
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>From the sample data, the <code>9/23/2010</code> record is returned as the first record, not the <code>10/23/2010</code>.
  Here is what I tried:</p>
  
  <p><code>dataRows = dt.Select("MAX(CONVERT(DateTime,BILLDATE))", "")</code> - run-time Error</p>
  
  <p><code>dataRows = dt.Select("", "Convert(BILLDATE,'System.DateTime')")</code> - run-time Error</p>
  
  <p>I would prefer not to iterate through all the records to get the latest date and select it. Any ideas?</p>
  
  <p>EDIT 1 - 2012-12-07 4:42pm:
  Added definition for dataRows. It is of type <code>DataRow()</code></p>