Java Utililty Methods Date Parse

SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(ENCOUNTER_DATE_PATTERN);
simpleDateFormat.setLenient(false);
return simpleDateFormat.parse(dateString);

SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm");
try {
    Date date = dateFormat.parse(dateString);
    return date;
} catch (ParseException e) {
    System.out.println(dateString + " is unparseable using " + dateFormat);
return new Date();
...

SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat(dateFormatString);
try {
    Date date = format.parse(dateString);
    return date;
} catch (Exception e) {
    throw new RuntimeException(e);

DateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
return formatter.parse(dateString);

Date finalResult = null;
DateFormat dateformat = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
finalResult = dateformat.parse(dateString);
return finalResult;

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
try {
    return sdf.parse(input);
} catch (Exception ex) {
    return null;

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
sdf.setLenient(false);
try {
    return sdf.parse(iso);
} catch (ParseException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
return null;
...

Date date = new Date();
try {
    SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss", Locale.ENGLISH);
    date = formatter.parse(string);
} catch (ParseException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
return date;
...

Date date;
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
try {
    date = sdf.parse(stringDate);
} catch (ParseException ex) {
    date = getNoDate();
return date;
...

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/M/yyyy HH:mm:ss"); 
Date tDate = sdf.parse(date);
return tDate;