title: Is there a way to compare date "strings" in C# without converting the strings?
body: <p>I have two fields:</p>
  
  <pre><code>string date1 = "04/26/10";
  string date2 = "04/25/10";
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How can I compare these two fields like so?:</p>
  
  <pre><code>if (date2 &lt;= date1)
  {
    // perform some code here
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Can this be done without first converting the fields to a separate date-type variable?</p>
  
  <p>EDIT: I should mention that these values are coming from a database table where the date values are in a string format to begin with.  Old legacy code...</p>