function maskDate(sValue, sType)

    dim zMonth

    zMonth = array("January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December")

    if len(trim(sValue)) = 0 then

        maskDate = ""

        setViewState false

    elseif not(isDate(sValue)) then

        maskDate = "# INVALID DATE ENTERED #"

        setViewState true

    else

        select case (sType)

            case "medium"              

                maskDate = day(dateValue(sValue)) & "-" & left(zMonth(month(dateValue(sValue)) - 1), 3) & "-" & year(dateValue(sValue))

            case "long"                

                maskDate = zMonth(month(dateValue(sValue)) - 1) & " " & day(dateValue(sValue)) & ", " & year(dateValue(sValue))

            case else                    

                maskDate = formatDateTime(sValue, vbShortDate)               

        end select

        setViewState false

    end if

end function

protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter output)

{

    output.WriteBeginTag("input");

    output.WriteAttribute("type","hidden");

    output.WriteAttribute("value","");

    output.WriteAttribute("id","__"+this.UniqueID);

    output.WriteAttribute("name","__"+this.UniqueID);

    output.Write(HtmlTextWriter.TagRightChar);

    base.Render(output);

}