question: public static Date parseDate ( String dateStr ) { String formatString = "" ; if ( dateStr . length ( ) == 16 ) dateStr = dateStr . substring ( 0 , 14 ) ; if ( dateStr . length ( ) == 15 ) formatString = "yyyyMMdd'T'hhmmss" ; if ( dateStr . length ( ) == 8 ) formatString = "yyyyMMdd" ; SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat ( formatString ) ; ParsePosition pos = new ParsePosition ( 0 ) ; return formatter . parse ( dateStr , pos ) ; }
target:  Returns a Date object from a String. 