Convert from String to date

public static java.sql.Date getSqlDate(String strDate) {
java.sql.Date sqlDate=null;
if(strDate!=null && !strDate.equals("")){
SimpleDateFormat formatter=null;
try{
formatter=new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
sqlDate = new java.sql.Date( (formatter.parse(strDate)).getTime() );
}catch(ParseException e){
// log.debug("Exception while converting to sql date: " + strDate);
e.printStackTrace();
}finally{
formatter=null;
}
}
return sqlDate;
}

Get Date before given date

public static boolean dateBefore(String toDate,String fromDate){
DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy") ;
Date ssFromDate = null ;
Date ssToDate = null ;
if(fromDate!=null && toDate!=null ){
try{
ssFromDate = df.parse(fromDate) ;
ssToDate = df.parse(toDate) ;
if((ssToDate.before(ssFromDate)))
{
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
}
}catch(Exception e){
e.printStackTrace();
}finally{
df=null;
ssFromDate= null;
ssToDate=null;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}