converting a date string into milliseconds in java [duplicate]

Answer 1

DateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd yyyy", Locale.US);
long futureTime = 0;
try {
    Date date = format.parse("Sat Feb 17 2012");
    futureTime = date.getTime();
} catch (ParseException e) {
    Log.e("log", e.getMessage(), e);
}

long curTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
long diff = futureTime - curTime;