How to store/manipulate Date and long text fields with Dictionary project

Question

I am able to save string values into my backend (SQL Server) database in my web dynpro project but I am getting errors dealing with my date string and my long text (comments) field. 
I want to figure out both how I need to define the fields in the dictionary project, how to define the context variables in web dynpro, and how to code the statements to pull the values out of the context and into fields I can use in my SQL insert. 
Currently I have the date defined in the dictionary project as "date" and the comments as a 256-character string. 
In the web dynpro context I have the date field defined as "date" and the comments field defined as "string".  Should I define a 256-character string type and use that as field type??
In the code I am using the following to get the values:
     String s9 = (String) wdContext.nodeReceipt().getElementAt(wdContext.nodeReceipt().getLeadSelection()).getAttributeValue("Comments");
String s5 = (String) wdContext.nodeReceipt().getElementAt(wdContext.nodeReceipt().getLeadSelection()).getAttributeValue("DateReceived");
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/mm/yyyy");
     try {
     Date dt = sdf.parse(s5);
     } catch (Exception e) {
          e.printStackTrace();
I then try to insert all of my values with the following code:
InitialContext ctx = new InitialContext();
  javax.sql.DataSource ds = (javax.sql.DataSource) ctx.lookup("jdbc/SAP/BC_JMS");
  java.sql.Connection con = ds.getConnection();
  java.sql.Statement stmt = con.createStatement();
  stmt.executeUpdate("insert into AVD_GEN_REC(VENDOR,DATE_RECEIVED,TOTAL_PIECES,LOGGED_BY," +
       "ADDRESSED_TO,BLDG_NO,CARRIER,TRACKING_NO, COMMENTS) values('s1','s5','s2','s6','s3','s7','s4','s8','s9')");
   } catch (Exception e) {
         wdThis.wdGetAPI().getComponent().getMessageManager().reportSuccess("Exception "+e.getMessage());
Any help/ideas would be appreciated...

Answer 1

The comment error seems to have resolved itself but I still get an error with the date field:
Exception The SQL statement "INSERT INTO "AVD_GEN_REC" ("VENDOR","DATE_RECEIVED","TOTAL_PIECES","LOGGED_BY","ADDRESSED_TO","BLDG_NO","CARRIER","TRACKING_NO","COMMENTS") VALUES ('s1','d5','s2','s6','s3','s7','s4','s8','s9')" contains the semantics error[s]: type check error: new value (element number 2) is not assignable to column "DATE_RECEIVED" 
The DATE_RECEIVED is defined in the data dictionary as "date", the context variable "DateReceived" is also a "date", and the statement to pull d5 is being stored to a "Date".  Is there a difference between the "Date" and "date"?
Date d5   = wdContext.currentReceiptElement().getDateReceived();