Apex convert string mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss to standard system date (yyyy-mm-dd 00:00:00)

Question

I am trying to convert string from google docs "1/16/2019 11:52:38" to standard system date "2019-01-16 00:00:00". I was able to achieve that using substring method but I am pretty sure there is a faster and smarter way of doing this.

I would really appreciate your help!

My method

private Date getFormattedDate(String timestamp) {
    String dateAsString = timestamp.substringBefore(' ');
    Integer month = Integer.valueOf(dateAsString.substringBefore('/'));
    Integer year =  Integer.valueOf(dateAsString.substringAfterLast('/'));
    Integer day = Integer.valueOf(dateAsString.substringAfter('/').substringBeforeLast('/'));
    return Date.newInstance(year, month, day);
}

Answer 1

You can use Date.parse method:

String str = '1/16/2019 11:52:38';  
Date dt = Date.parse( str.split(' ')[0] );  
system.debug(' Parsed Date is ' + dt ); 

|DEBUG| Parsed Date is 2019-01-16 00:00:00

Refer Date Class

If you want to change from mm/dd/yyyy to dd/mm/yyyy format, use below approach.

Date dToday = Date.today(); //DEBUG|>>>>2019-01-17 00:00:00
String dateStr = Date.today().format();
DateTime dt = DateTime.newInstance(dToday.year(), dToday.month(),dToday.day());
dateStr = dt.format('dd/MM/yyyy');
System.debug('>>>>' + dateStr); //>>>>17/01/2019