Customizing JTree data rendering for Dates

Question

I have a JTree that has different data types in each column that I'm sorting. I'd like to be able to control the String that appears in the table cell(s) based on the value in the model. I'm trying to make it so that if a Date is less than some predeterminded Date value that a custom string is output to the Table cell instead of the normal Date string.
I thought a JTable took the toString() of the Date object for its value and that I could just subclass the java.util.Date object and override the toString() with a conditional. such as (toString() in my CustomDate subclass that extends java.util.Date):
public String toString() {
    defaultDate = new java.util.Date();
    if (defaultDate.getTime()>this.getTime()){
        return "Date entered in the past";
    } else { //get the normal Date toString
        return new String(super.toString());
}I'm not so much asking what is wrong with my code, but how to accomplish this task, the code is simply to show the direction I've taken. Am i close, or way out in left field?
Thanks for any help guys!

Answer 1

Zulfi100 needs a BrainCellRenderer.He is strangely disturbing yet amusing at the same time. It worries me that he is going to use the skills he learns here to teach.