display Java.util.Date in a specific format
How about:
SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(dateFormat.parse("31/05/2011")));
> 31/05/2011
You need to go through SimpleDateFormat.format in order to format the date as a string.
Here's an example that goes from String -> Date -> String.
SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
Date date = dateFormat.parse("31/05/2011");
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(date)); // prints 31/05/2011
// ^^^^^^