How to convert a date String to a Date or Calendar object?

I have a String representation of a date that I need to create a Date or Calendar object from. I’ve looked through Date and Calendar APIs but haven’t found anything that can do this other than creating my own ugly parse method. I know there must be a way, does anyone know of a solution?

Answer

In brief:

DateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yy");
try {
  Date date = formatter.parse("01/29/02");
} catch (ParseException e) {
  e.printStackTrace();
}

See SimpleDateFormat javadoc for more.

And to turn it into a Calendar, do:

Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.setTime(date);