String to Date Conversion in Java

//String to Date Conversion
 stringDate = "10-04-2013";

 public Date stringToDate(String stringDate)
 {
  Date date = null;
  try {
   SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy");
   date = sdf.parse(stringDate);
   System.out.println(date);
   return date;
  } catch (ParseException e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
   return date;
  }
 }