public Date parseDate(String str){
  try {
    return dateFormat.parse(str);
  }
 catch (  java.text.ParseException e) {
    throw new RuntimeException(e);
  }
}

public Date parseDate ( String str ) { try { return dateFormat . parse ( str ) ; } catch ( java . text . ParseException e ) { throw new RuntimeException ( e ) ; } }
parse the given string into date object .
