How to parse String to java.sql.date

java.time

I am providing the modern answer. I recommend that you use java.time, the modern Java date and time API, for your date work.

    DateTimeFormatter dateFormatter = 
        new DateTimeFormatterBuilder()
            .parseCaseInsensitive()
            .appendPattern("dd MMMM uuuu")
            .toFormatter(Locale.ENGLISH);
    
    String s = "01 NOVEMBER 2012";
    
    LocalDate date = LocalDate.parse(s, dateFormatter);
    
    System.out.println(date);

Output:

2012-11-01

You asked for a java.sql.Date? By all likelihood you don’t need any. I assume that you wanted one for use with your SQL database. Since JDBC 4.2 you can use LocalDate there too. For example:

    PreparedStatement statement = yourDatabaseConnection.prepareStatement(
            "insert into your_table (your_date_column) values (?);");
    statement.setObject(1, date);
    statement.executeUpdate();

Note the use of PreparedStatement.setObject() (not setDate()).

If you do need a java.sql.Date for a legacy API not yet upgraded to java.time, the conversion is easy and straightforward:

    java.sql.Date oldfashionedJavaSqlDate = java.sql.Date.valueOf(date);
    System.out.println(oldfashionedJavaSqlDate);

2012-11-01

Links

• Oracle tutorial: Date Time explaining how to use java.time.
• Related question: Insert & fetch java.time.LocalDate objects to/from an SQL database such as H2

Expanding on Jigar Joshi answer.

This code has been able to handle whatever I've needed.

import java.sql.Date;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;

Date date1;
Date date2;
Date date3;

    //converting string into sql date);
    try {
         date1 = new java.sql.Date(
                     ((java.util.Date) new SimpleDateFormat("dd MMM yyyy").parse("01 NOVEMBER 2012")).getTime());

        date2 = new java.sql.Date(
                    ((java.util.Date)newSimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy").parse("02/09/2012")).getTime());

        date3 = new java.sql.Date(
                    ((java.util.Date) new SimpleDateFormat("ddMMyyyy").parse("03092012")).getTime());

    } catch (ParseException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

    System.out.println("sqlDate test1:" + date1);
    System.out.println("sqlDate test2:" + date2);
    System.out.println("sqlDate test3:" + date3);


    output:
           sqlDate test1:2012-11-01
           sqlDate test2:2012-09-02
           sqlDate test3:2012-09-03