How to convert String to Date
SimpleDateFormat allows you to start by choosing any user-defined patterns for date-time formatting. The java.text.SimpleDateFormat class is used to both parse and format dates according to a formatting pattern you specify yourself.
String format = "dd/MM/yyyy";
SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
String to Date conversion
Example
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.DateFormat;
public class TestClass{
public static void main(String[] args) {
try{
String stringDate="01/12/1995";
Date date=new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy").parse(stringDate);
System.out.println("Date is : "+date);
}catch(Exception e){
System.out.println(e);
}
}
}
Here's an extract of all available format patterns from the javadoc:

Convert different types of string to Date in java
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.DateFormat;
public class TestClass{
public static void main(String[] args) {
String stringDate = "03/08/1995";
String stringDate2 = "02-09-1995 23:37:50";
String stringDate3 = "02-May-1995";
String stringDate4 = "04 02, 1995";
String stringDate5 = "Thu, May 02 1995";
String stringDate6 = "Thu, May 02 1995 23:37:50";
DateFormat date = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
DateFormat date2 = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss");
DateFormat date3 = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MMM-yyyy");
DateFormat date4 = new SimpleDateFormat("MM dd, yyyy");
DateFormat date5 = new SimpleDateFormat("E, MMM dd yyyy");
DateFormat date6 = new SimpleDateFormat("E, MMM dd yyyy HH:mm:ss");
try{
Date nDate1 = date.parse(stringDate);
System.out.println(stringDate + " : " + date.format(nDate1));
Date nDate2 = date2.parse(stringDate2);
System.out.println(stringDate2 + " : " + date2.format(nDate2));
Date nDate3 = date3.parse(stringDate3);
System.out.println(stringDate3 + " : " + date3.format(nDate3));
Date nDate4 = date4.parse(stringDate4);
System.out.println(stringDate4 + " : " + date4.format(nDate4));
Date nDate5 = date5.parse(stringDate5);
System.out.println(stringDate5 + " : " + date5.format(nDate5));
Date nDate6 = date6.parse(stringDate6);
System.out.println(stringDate6 + " : " + date6.format(nDate6));
}catch(Exception e){
System.out.println(e);
}
}
}
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