protected static Long convertDateToBucketingLong(Date dateToBeConverted){
  if (dateToBeConverted == null) {
    return null;
  }
  return dateToBeConverted.getTime();
}

protected static Long convertDateToBucketingLong ( Date dateToBeConverted ) { if ( dateToBeConverted == null ) { return null ; } return dateToBeConverted . getTime ( ) ; }
this method converts the date value to its corresponding long value , this method assumes that the date format is the same as the format being returned by the parseutils . parsestringasdate
