I have few datetime columns in the grid which might have '01/01/0001' or "01/01/1900" values in them. To make sure they are not displayed i have added a check in the InitializeRow event handler and set the column values to Empty String.
I dont have control over the data source thats provided as of yet, but is there a better way of handling this in the grid ?
An alternative approach would be to use the IEditorDataFilter interface, which is exposed via the editor's DataFilter property. The interface exposes a 'Convert' method, which you implement to convert values as they go back and forth from the editor to the column to the display, etc. In your case you would do something like handle the ConversionDirection of 'EditorToDisplay' or 'OwnerToEditor' (sorry, can't remember which) and return an empty string for the values that are considered "not really dates". With this approach, you would not be modifying the actual values but rather the way they are displayed.