CSV Import into gridview problem

Hi

I posted this in the ASP forums but think its more of a vb question so sorry for the repost:

I have an app that will load info from a csv into a gridview. Everything works properly except for one column. It is only displaying fields with numeric values. All of the alpha-numeric cells are being left blank. I have looked at the csv and it is properly formatted and the other columns have alpha-numeric as well and are being pulled in properly.

Here is a snippet of the code that populates the gridview. Any help would be most appreciated.

Code:

---


        Dim savePath As String = "\\Depts\"


        Dim Conn As System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnection
        Dim dt As New System.Data.DataTable
        Dim da As System.Data.Odbc.OdbcDataAdapter
        Dim strConnstr, strImportfolder, strFilename As String



        strFilename = FileUpload1.FileName
        'this is the csv file to be imported

        strConnstr = "Driver={Microsoft Text Driver (*.txt; *.csv)};Dbq=" + savePath + ";"
        Conn = New System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnection(strConnstr)

        da = New System.Data.Odbc.OdbcDataAdapter("SELECT Site, Line , Item, Date  FROM [" + strFilename + "]", Conn)
        da.Fill(dt)
        Session("Import") = dt
        GridView1.DataSource = Session("Import")
        GridView1.DataBind()

---

The Item column is the one that is coming in incorrectly.

I found that the majority of cells need to be alpha-numeric. That is odd to me. Is there anything I can do to the select statement to tell it that is not numeric?

I have tried doing "SELECT CStr(Item)......."
but now getting an "invalid use of null" when i fill the da

Strange, it is making the alpha-numeric cells null before evaluating them against the Cstr() function. I am stumped

So any ideas?