Java Utililty Methods String to Date

try {
    SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat(ISO_FORMAT);
    format.setTimeZone(UTC);
    return format.parse(text);
} catch (ParseException e) {
    return null;

if (thisdate == null || thisdate.trim().length() == 0) {
    return null;
SimpleDateFormat sdf = (SimpleDateFormat) SimpleDateFormat.getDateInstance();
sdf.applyPattern("dd-MM-yyyy");
java.util.Date soughtDate = null;
try {
    soughtDate = sdf.parse(thisdate);
...

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

if (vStr == null || vPatten == null) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("The vStr and the vPatten must not be null");
if (vStr.equals(""))
    return null;
try {
    SimpleDateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat(vPatten);
    return df.parse(vStr);
...

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
Date date = sdf.parse(strDate);
return new java.util.Date(date.getTime());

if (date == null || "".equals(date))
    return null;
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM");
return sdf.parse(date);

DateFormat formatterDateAndTime = new SimpleDateFormat(DATE_TIME_FORMAT);
Date date = formatterDateAndTime.parse(dateAndTimeString);
return date;

DateFormat formater;
formater = new SimpleDateFormat(formate);
try {
    return (Date) formater.parse(str);
} catch (ParseException e) {
    formater = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
    try {
        return (Date) formater.parse(str.substring(0, 10));
...

try {
    SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(formatStr);
    Date date = sdf.parse(dateStr);
    return date;
} catch (Throwable t) {
    return null;

return format1.parse(time);