How to convert a String into a date in yyyy-MM-dd using SimpleDateFormat?

Question

Hi Guys,
I am using the following code
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
public class ValiDATE {
     private static boolean validateDateFormat(String strDate) {
          try {
               SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("yy-MM-dd");
               try {
                    formatter.setLenient(false);
                    formatter.parse(strDate);
               catch (ParseException e) {
                    // invalid date/datetime format          
                    return false;
          catch (Exception ignored) {
          return true;
     public static void main(String args[]){
          System.out.println(validateDateFormat("11111-11-11"));          
}In the above snippet even if I pass the string parameter as "11111-11-11" it returns a new date and hence prints TRUE in the console, but I want the date to be in yyyy-MM-dd format that is no of years shouldn't exceed 4 digits in all.
I don't want to use RegEx, I know this can be done using SimpleDateFormat, but would like to know how that can be done.
I think it has to do something with this . ( [http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html#year|http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html#year] )
Regards
AR

Answer 1

Java.slogger wrote:
Yeah I have gone through the javaDoc and it says For formatting, if the number of pattern letters is 2, the year is truncated to 2 digits; otherwise it is interpreted as a number. The important part is:
JavaDoc:
Any other numeric string, such as a one digit string, a three or more digit string, or a two digit string that isn't all digits (for example, "-1"), is interpreted literally.
Do you know any workarounds else is using a Regex is the best approach?I don't see this as a problem. Everything behaves as designed and as is sensible.
So if you want to avoid dates with 5-digit numbers, I'd add something like:
if (parsedDate.after(CUTOFF_DATE)) {
  throw new OhNoesThisIsEvilException("!");
}