title: Parse string pattern into Date in Flex
body: <p>Is there some way in flex to parse strings to date. I want it to support custom formats similar to 'dateformatter'. Using 'dateformatter' class we can parse date object in various string formats as specified by 'formatString property'. I want it other way round, from string to date. The parse method 'Date.parse(my_string)' does string parsing but for a very limited set of formats. Can't we have something similar to following, where user can specify his/her own formats. </p>
  
  <pre><code>someformatter.formatString = 'HH::MM::SS' ;
  mydate = someformatter.formatTodate('23::56:34');
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Will 'parseDateString' method of dateformatter be useul here?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance.</p>