Question: I have the following string:

```
Mon Sep 14 15:24:40 UTC 2009

```

I need to format it into a string like this:

```
14/9/2009

```

How do I do it in Java?

Answer: 
Use [`SimpleDateFormat`](http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html) (click the javadoc link to see patterns) to parse the string in one pattern to a fullworthy [`Date`](http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/Date.html) and use another one to format the parsed `Date` to a string in another pattern.

```
String string1 = "Mon Sep 14 15:24:40 UTC 2009";
Date date = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM d HH:mm:ss Z yyyy").parse(string1);
String string2 = new SimpleDateFormat("d/M/yyyy").format(date);
System.out.println(string2); // 14/9/2009

```
```
Date d = new Date("Mon Sep 14 15:24:40 UTC 2009");
SimpleDateFormat f = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/M/yyyy");
String s = new String(f.format(d));

```