Create SimpleDateFormats from a string read from a file public class DateFormatFile { /** Today's Date */ Date dNow = new Date(); public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException { DateFormatFile df = new DateFormatFile(); BufferedReader is = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in)); String line; while ((line = is.readLine()) != null) { df.process(line); } } /** Use a SimpleDateFormat - based on arg - to print the date your way. */ protected void process(String arg) { SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat(arg); System.out.println("FORMAT: " + arg); System.out.println("RESULT: " + formatter.format(dNow)); System.out.println(); } }