# How to convert string to LocalDate in Java

By Atta Ur Rehman Shah (https://attacomsian.com/about). Published Dec 30, 2019, updated Oct 14, 2022. Topics: Java.
Canonical URL: https://attacomsian.com/blog/java-convert-string-to-localdate

> A quick tutorial to learn how to convert a string to an instance of LocalDate in Java.

A `LocalDate` represents a date without time and timezone information. This class was introduced in [Java 8 new date and time API](https://attacomsian.com/blog/java-new-date-time-api) for handling dates in ISO-8601 format (`yyyy-MM-dd`). Unlike the legacy `Date` class, it doesn't store any time or timezone.

In this article, you'll learn how to convert a date string to an instance of `LocalDate` in Java 8 and higher. The new date and time API provides the `parse()` method for parsing a string to date. By default, this method accepts a date string in ISO-8601 format — [`ISO_LOCAL_DATE`](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/time/format/DateTimeFormatter.html#ISO_LOCAL_DATE) and parses it directly to an instance of `LocalDate`. 

The following example demonstrates how you can convert the default ISO-8601 formatted string  to `LocalDate` using `parse()`:

```java
// default ISO-8601 formatted string
String str = "2017-06-25";

// parse string to `LocalDate`
LocalDate date = LocalDate.parse(str);

// print `LocalDate`
System.out.println("Parsed LocalDate: " + date);
```

Here is what the output looks like:

```bash
Parsed LocalDate: 2017-06-25
```

To parse a date string that is not ISO-8601 formatted, you need to pass an instance of `DateTimeFormatter` to explicitly specify the date string pattern as shown below:

```java
// parse custom date strings
LocalDate date = LocalDate.parse("December 15, 2019", DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MMMM dd, yyyy"));
LocalDate date2 = LocalDate.parse("07/17/2019", DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MM/dd/yyyy"));
LocalDate date3 = LocalDate.parse("02-Aug-1989", DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd-MMM-yyyy"));

// print `LocalDate` instances
System.out.println(date);
System.out.println(date2);
System.out.println(date3);
```

The above code snippet will print the following on the console:

```bash
2019-12-15
2019-07-17
1989-08-02
```

Check out [how to convert a string to date in Java](https://attacomsian.com/blog/java-convert-string-to-date) guide for more string-to-date conversion examples.