How to get current date time in Java as a string

Calendar now = Calendar.getInstance();
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm:ss z dd/MM/yyyy");
String stringDate = sdf.format(now.getTime()); 
// 20:00:52 CEST 13/05/2011

Convert String to Date in Java

SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat( "dd.MM.yyyy" );
Date date = format.parse( myString );