PreparedStatement set date sometimes sets the date one day behind

Question

I have a PreparedStatement that sometimes sets the date a day behind. I am saving to a MSSQL DB with a field datetime. I have two identical PreparedStatments, one for insert and one for update. When either is executed, it will sometimes set the date back one day. It's not everytime. Every other or every third one, but it's not consistent. Any help would be appreciated.
ps.setDate(1, Util.parseSqlDate(getParam("CHARGED")));
public class Util {
     public static java.sql.Date parseSqlDate(String datestr) {
          DateFormat sdf = null;
          if (datestr == null)
               return null;
          if (datestr.length() > 8) {
               sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
          else {
               sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yy");
          java.util.Date d = null;
          try {
           d = sdf.parse(datestr);
          } catch (ParseException e) {
               return null;
          if (d != null) {
               Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
               cal.setTime(d);
               return new java.sql.Date(cal.getTimeInMillis());
          return null;
        protected String getParam(String name) {
          return (getParamArray(name)== null) ? null : getParamArray(name)[0];
     protected String[] getParamArray(String name) {
          return (String[])params.get(name);
     }

Answer 1

traigo wrote:
The database is a datetime field. Then you should be using the appropriate java jdbc time/date methods to access it rather than strings.
We are only storing the date portion. Saving with today's date should produce '2009-12-28 00:00:00.000'.
I just want to set the date to an absolute date (no time value) provided without timezones.Impossible. Since the database datatype is datetime that means that a timezone is always involved.
And java always uses timezones. Ignoring the problem doesn't make it go away.