How to convert string to date in Java

In this tutorial, we will learn how to convert a string to date in Java. There are many ways in which we can convert a string into a date in Java using different classes. Here we are going to discuss only two classes and they are LocalDate and SimpleDateFormat.

Using SimpleDateFormat class:

Now, we are going to discuss how to convert a string to date using SimpleDateFormat class.

Firstly we need to understand that a normal string cannot be converted to a date. Therefore we have to write the string in the format of the date.

Like if we write

string date="05March2022";

This cannot be converted into a date. Therefore if the date is written in the correct format then by creating an object of simpledateformat we can convert it into a date.

Like:

string date = "05-03-2022";

After giving the string as input for converting it into a date we will create an object of simpleDateFormat and provide the format of the date to be printed as a parameter. This class will format the string as the pattern of the date given in the parameter. And then we will parse the date.

SimpleDateFormat d = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy");
System.out.println(d.parse(date));

We will include the packages necessary packages i.e. java. text.ParseException and  java.text.SimpleDateFormat and then using scanner class we take the string as user input.

The complete code:

import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.*;

public class string_Date {

    public static void main(String args[]) throws ParseException {
        Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
        SimpleDateFormat d = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy");
        String date;
        System.out.println("Enter the string in this form: dd-MM-yyyy");
        date = sc.nextLine();
        System.out.println(d.parse(date));

    }

}

This will also display the time if provided but here we will only learn about the date. So, the time will be 00:00:00.

Output:

Enter the string in this form: dd-MM-yyyy


05-03-2022

Sat Mar 05 00:00:00 IST 2022

Using LocalDate class

Now we are going to discuss how to convert a string to date using the LocalDate class.

We will take the input in the format of how the date is represented.

string date="2022-03-06";

We will convert the string by creating an object of the class LocalDate and providing the format of the date as a parameter and will also parse the date at the same time.

In this way:

LocalDate d = LocalDate.parse(date);

We will include these required packages: java. time.LocalDate and java.util.* and then using scanner we will take the string as user input.

The complete code:

import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.util.*;

public class string_date1 {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
        String date;
        System.out.println("Enter the string to be converted to date");
        date = sc.nextLine();
        LocalDate d = LocalDate.parse(date);
        System.out.println(d);
    }
}

After executing the code we will get the following output:

Enter the string to be converted to date


2022-03-06

2022-03-06

Hope this tutorial was useful.