combo question: date formats and general question about exceptions

[Edmund Castermund]

Hi,
I'm writing a web app that uses dates, and in some cases I have the user enter dates in an html form and then I need to convert that input to a java date format...I usually use GregorianCalendar.

First...is that the best date format? Or is SimpleDateFormat better? I use GregorianCalendar mainly because the books and tutorials I came across when I was learning used it.

In my webapp stuff I'll usually have the user select values from a pulldown, and then have a method that converts it to a gregorianCalendar.

Which brings me to my 2nd question...

Does it make sense to write my own exception for an improper date? The method that converts the html form values to a calendar could then throw the exception, but is it considered overkill to put something that simple in a try/catch?

thanks!
bp

[Bear Bibeault]

It's best not to ask "combo questions" as one or the other usually falls by the wayside. It can also make posts confusing for future searches.

If SimpleDateFormat works, it's probably less overhead and with a simpler API.

I never use exceptions for anything other than exceptional conditions, of which data validation is not (in my opinion).