If you want a date object that will always print your desired format, you have to create an own subclass of class Date and override toString there.
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
public class MyDate extends Date {
private final SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
public MyDate() { }
public MyDate(Date source) {
super(source.getTime());
}
// ...
@Override
public String toString() {
return dateFormat.format(this);
}
}
Now you can create this class like you did with Date before and you don't need to create the SimpleDateFormat every time.
public static void main(String[] args) {
MyDate date = new MyDate();
System.out.println(date);
}
The output is 23/08/2014.
This is the updated code you posted in your question:
String testDateString = "02/04/2014";
DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
MyDate d1 = new MyDate(df.parse(testDateString));
System.out.println(d1);
Note that you don't have to call df.format(d1) anymore, d1.toString() will return the date as the formated string.