/**
* Parses a string as a date
*
* @param str The string containing the date
* @return The date value parsed from the string
* @throws IOException If there's an error parsing the date
*/
public Object parseDate(String str, DateFormat dateFormat) throws IOException {
// If there isn't any, don't parse
if (str == null) return null;
try {
return dateFormat.parse(str);
} catch (ParseException exc) {
throw new IOException("Error parsing date " + str);
}
}
