Converting string to date in mm/dd/yyyy format

Question

Hi,
I used simpledateformat to convert date to "MM/dd/yyyy" format.
Now when i want to insert into db, i want the value as date object instead of string [returned by format method of SimpleDateFormat]
what should i do?
Date dt = new Date();
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
System.out.println("Formatted date is coming as "+sdf.format(dt));
Date dt1 = sdf.parse(sdf.format(dt);
System.out.println("parsed date is coming as " +dt1);
output :
1 SOP returns 11/07/2007 [current date]
2 SOP returns Wed Nov 07 00:00:00 GMT+05:30 2007

Answer 1

If you are using PreparedStatements setDate method, you need a java.sql.Date object, not a Java.util.Date object. You can create an sql.Date object from a util.Date object as follows:
java.sql.Date sqlDate = new java.sql.Date(dt.getTime());And, if you are not using PreparedStatement and its setDate method, then change now.
Doing
Date dt1 = sdf.parse(sdf.format(dt));is meaningless. You format the date to string, then parse the string back to a date? Why? Why not just use the original Date object? And you won't get a sql.Date object that way, either, as the DateFormat classes return a util.Date object.
Edit: And for more info:
A Date does not have a format. It is simply a number. The "format" only comes into play when printing the String representation of the Date, and that is not handled by the Date object itself (except when calling toString either explicitly or implicitly).