public DateConverter() 
{
            this.defaultValue = null;
            this.useDefault = false;
}

Create a Converter that will throw a ConversionException if a conversion error occurs.

 public DateConverter(Object defaultValue) 
{
            this.defaultValue = defaultValue;
            this.useDefault = true;
}

Create a Converter that will return the specified default value if a conversion error occurs.

Parameters:

defaultValue - The default value to be returned

 public DateConverter(String[] formats) 
{
            this();
            int len = formats.length;
            dateFormats = new DateFormat[len];
            for (int i = 0; i <  len; i++) {
                dateFormats[i] = new SimpleDateFormat(formats[i]);
            }
}

 public Object convert(Class type,
    Object value) 
{
        // --------------------------------------------------------- Public Methods
            if (value == null) {
                if (useDefault) {
                    return (defaultValue);
                } else {
                    return (null);
                }
            }
            if (String.class.equals(type)) {
                if ((value instanceof Date) && (dateFormats != null)) {
                    return (dateFormats[0].format((Date) value));
                } else {
                    return (value.toString());
                }
            }
            if (value instanceof Date) {
                return (value);
            }
            try {
                if (Date.class.isAssignableFrom(type) && dateFormats != null) {
                    return parseDate(value);
                } else {
                    return (value.toString());
                }
            } catch (Exception e) {
                if (useDefault) {
                    return (defaultValue);
                } else {
                    throw new ConversionException(e);
                }
            }
}

Convert the specified input object into an output object of the specified type.

 protected Date parseDate(Object value) throws ParseException 
{
            Date date = null;
            int len = dateFormats.length;
            for (int i = 0; i <  len; i++) {
                try {
                    date = (dateFormats[i].parse(value.toString()));
                    break;
                } catch (ParseException e) {
                    // if this is the last format, throw the exception
                    if (i == (len - 1)) {
                        throw e;
                    }
                }
            }
            return date;
}