This is basically a reusable code which helps us to format the Dates as our wish. These methods save us a lot of time which we might waste in searching code for these basic validations.
package com.test; import java.text.DateFormat; import java.text.Format; import java.text.SimpleDateFormat; import java.util.Date; /** * TODO To change the template for this generated type comment go to Window - * Preferences - Java - Code Style - Code Templates */ public class DateUtil { /** * */ public DateUtil() { super(); // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub } public long getDays(String dte1, String dte2, String dteFormat) { long rtnDays = 0; // dteFormat example - yyyy-MM-dd try { DateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat(dteFormat); rtnDays = (((Date) format.parse(dte2)).getTime() - ((Date) format .parse(dte1)).getTime()) / (60 * 60 * 24 * 1000); } catch (Exception e) { System.out.println("getDays() Exception " + e.getMessage()); } return rtnDays; } public String getDate(String format) { String rtnStr = ""; Format formatter = null; try { formatter = new SimpleDateFormat(format); rtnStr = formatter.format(new Date()); } catch (Exception e) { System.out.println("getDate() Exception " + e.toString()); } return rtnStr; } public Date getCurrentDate(String dateFormat) { Date rtnDte = null; try { SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(dateFormat); rtnDte = sdf.parse(new Date().toString()); } catch (Exception e) { System.out.println("getCurrentDate() Exception " + e.toString()); } return rtnDte; } public Date getDate(String dateFormat, String dateStr) { Date rtnDte = null; try { SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(dateFormat); rtnDte = sdf.parse(dateStr); } catch (Exception e) { System.out.println("getDate() Exception " + e.toString()); } return rtnDte; } public String getDateString(String dateFormat, String dateStr) { String rtnStr = null; try { SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(dateFormat); rtnStr = sdf.format(sdf.parse(dateStr)); } catch (Exception e) { System.out.println("getDateString() Exception " + e.toString()); } return rtnStr; } public String getDateTime(String dateFormat, Date aDate) { SimpleDateFormat df = null; String rtnStr = ""; if (aDate == null) { System.out.println("aDate is null!"); } else { df = new SimpleDateFormat(dateFormat); rtnStr = df.format(aDate); } return (rtnStr); } }