code: public static Date parseToDate(final String date, final String format) throws ParseException
  	{
  		final DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
  		Date parsedDate = null;
  		parsedDate = df.parse(date);
  		return parsedDate;
  	}
docs: Parses the String date to a date object. For example: USA-Format is : yyyy-MM-dd
  
  @param date
  The Date as String
  @param format
  The Format for the Date to parse
  @return The parsed Date
  @throws ParseException
  occurs when their are problems with parsing the String to Date.