Here you can find the source of parse(String date)
public static Date parse(String date)
//package com.java2s; //License from project: Apache License import java.text.ParseException; import java.text.SimpleDateFormat; import java.util.Date; import java.util.TimeZone; public class Main { private static final String SYSTEM_DATE_FORMAT = "dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm"; public static final String TIME_ZONE = "CST"; public static Date parse(String date) { try {//from ww w. java2 s . c o m SimpleDateFormat format = getDateTimeFormat(); return format.parse(date); } catch (ParseException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } return null; } private static SimpleDateFormat getDateTimeFormat() { SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(SYSTEM_DATE_FORMAT); dateFormat.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone(TIME_ZONE)); return dateFormat; } }