DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd"); Date date; try { date = dateFormat.parse("2013-12-4"); System.out.println(date.toString()); // Wed Dec 04 00:00:00 CST 2013 String output = dateFormat.format(date); System.out.println(output); // 2013-12-04 } catch (ParseException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } It works fine for me.