Java Database Connectivity (JDBC)

Hi,

i have a html form which will populate the date in the text field using popup window in the mm\dd\yy format .

In the servlet i first retrieve the value as string object and need to store that one the database. using setDate method of prepared statement
The date should be of type sql date only.

so my question is how to convert the string representation of the date to sql date.

Thanx in advance