How to convert a date String to a Date or Calendar object?

Question

I have a String representation of a date that I need to create a Date or Calendar object from. I've looked through Date and Calendar APIs but haven't found anything that can do this other than creating my own ugly parse method. I know there must be a way, does anyone know of a solution?

Answer 1

In brief:

DateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yy"); try {   Date date = formatter.parse("01/29/02"); } catch (ParseException e) {   e.printStackTrace(); } 

See SimpleDateFormat javadoc for more.

And to turn it into a Calendar, do:

Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance(); calendar.setTime(date);