MM_DD_YYYY Date Formatter in Java

This will formte the Date to the MM-DD-YYYY format

 public static String formatDate(Date date) {
//create new calendar instance
  Calendar cal1 = Calendar.getInstance();
  String dob = "";
//check for null
  if(date==null)
//if null create new date instance
   date = new Date();
   cal1.setTime(date);
   if (cal1 != null) {
    dob = "" + ((cal1.get(Calendar.MONTH)) + 1);
    dob += "-" + cal1.get(Calendar.DATE);
    dob += "-" + cal1.get(Calendar.YEAR);
   }
 
  return dob;
 }