Formatting a Date based on the user's Locale

Question

I'm having some trouble formatting a date based on the user's locale. I'm aware you can do something like this:
   public static String getAsString( Object dateObject, Locale locale ) {
      DateFormat dateFormat = DateFormat.getDateInstance( DateFormat.MEDIUM, locale );
      return dateFormat.format( dateObject );
However, this is returning something like Jan 21, 2009. I need 01/21/2009. Of course, if this was the UK locale it'd have to be 21/01/2009. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

another issue I'm running into is that when I'm logged in as a users' locale which uses '-' instead of '/' (i.e. 21-01-2009), I get a parse error. Can anyone provide any input? Thanks.
    * Parse a Date
    * @param dateString
    * @param locale
    * @return parsed Date
   public static Object parseDate( String dateString, Locale locale ) {
      DateFormat dateFormat = DateFormat.getDateInstance( DateFormat.SHORT, locale );
      try {
         return dateFormat.parse( dateString );
      catch( Exception exception ) {
         throw new ExceptionUtl( UtlMessageHelper.getMessage( UtlMessageConstants.ERROR_FailedParseDateFromString, dateString ), exception );
    * Format the given value into a DateFormat
    * @param dateObject
    *           Object value to be formatted
    * @param locale
    *           Locale format to use
    * @return dateObject in SimpleDateFormat
   public static String formatDate( Object dateObject, Locale locale ) {
      DateFormat dateFormat = DateFormat.getDateInstance( DateFormat.SHORT, locale );
      if( dateFormat instanceof SimpleDateFormat ) {
         SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = ( SimpleDateFormat )dateFormat;
         String pattern = simpleDateFormat.toPattern();
         if( !pattern.contains( "yyyy" ) ) {
            pattern = pattern.replace( "yy", "yyyy" );
         if( !pattern.contains( "dd" ) ) {
            pattern = pattern.replace( "d", "dd" );
         if( !pattern.contains( "MM" ) ) {
            pattern = pattern.replace( "M", "MM" );
         simpleDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat( pattern );
         return simpleDateFormat.format( dateObject );
      return null;
   }