Java Utililty Methods String to Date

try {
    return DATE_FORMAT.parse(str);
} catch (ParseException e) {
    throw new RuntimeException(e.getMessage() + " Caused by " + e.getCause(), e);

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
return sdf.parse(_date);

java.text.SimpleDateFormat sdf = new java.text.SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd");
java.util.Date d = sdf.parse(date);
return d;

if (date == null) {
    return null;
Date realDate = null;
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
try {
    Date newDate = sdf.parse(date);
    String str = sdf.format(newDate);
...

SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat(pattern);
try {
    return format.parse(date);
} catch (ParseException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
return null;

SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE, MMM dd, yyyy HH:mm:ss a");
try {
    return formatter.parse(dateFormat);
} catch (ParseException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
return null;

Date newDate = null;
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy");
if (dateInString != null) {
    try {
        newDate = sdf.parse(dateInString);
    } catch (ParseException ex) {
        ex.printStackTrace();
return newDate;

if (dateStr == null || "".equals(dateStr.trim()))
    return null;
DateFormat dt = null;
if (dateFormat == null) {
    dt = getDateFormat(dateStr);
} else {
    dt = new SimpleDateFormat(dateFormat);
return dt.parse(dateStr);

SimpleDateFormat formater = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
Date date = formater.parse(dateStr);
return date;

Date date = null;
try {
    if (yyyyMMdd.equals(format)) {
        date = dateFormat.parse(dateStr);
    } else if (yyyy_MM_dd.equals(format)) {
        date = dateFormat2.parse(dateStr);
    } else if (ddMMyy.equals(format)) {
        date = dateFormat3.parse(dateStr);
...