public static final Date convertStringToDate(String aMask, String strDate)
throws ParseException {
SimpleDateFormat df = null;
Date date = null;
df = new SimpleDateFormat(aMask);
try {
date = df.parse(strDate);
} catch (ParseException pe) {
//log.error("ParseException: " + pe);
throw new ParseException(pe.getMessage(), pe.getErrorOffset());
}