You can do it the same way as a java.util.Date (since java.sql.Date is a sub-class of java.util.Date) with a SimpleDateFormat

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(
    "MM-dd-yyyy");
int year = 2014;
int month = 10;
int day = 31;
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.set(Calendar.YEAR, year);
cal.set(Calendar.MONTH, month - 1); // <-- months start
                                    // at 0.
cal.set(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, day);

java.sql.Date date = new java.sql.Date(cal.getTimeInMillis());
System.out.println(sdf.format(date));

Output is the expected

10-31-2014

Your code seems to be correct, you only get confused due to the implementation of toString:

1. In java.util.Date which gives the date to the form dow mon dd hh:mm:ss zzz yyyy.
2. In java.sql.Date which gives the date to the form yyyy-mm-dd.

But if you compare what getTime() returns for both (date and sqlDate), you will get the same value as what you initially provided to df.format to get timeString.

Your mistake is more that you use java.sql.Date for a datetime because as stated into the javadoc:

To conform with the definition of SQL DATE, the millisecond values wrapped by a java.sql.Date instance must be 'normalized' by setting the hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds to zero in the particular time zone with which the instance is associated.

You are supposed to use java.sql.Timestamp instead of java.sql.Date to keep the time part of your date (hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds) as you expect.

Your code should then be:

...
java.sql.Timestamp sqlDate = new java.sql.Timestamp(date.getTime());

java.sql.Timestamp extends java.util.Date. You can do:

String s = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy").format(myTimestamp);

Or to also include time:

String s = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss").format(myTimestamp);

Please don't do like that . Get the date Using Date Object and parse it Using SimpleDateFormat . its Simple . Don't Go For Hard Coding the value. its Not Convenient for programmer . please find Code

Date date  = new Date();//Today Date
SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");// FOrmat in This Format or you change Change as well 
String Format= format.format(date);
System.out.println(Format);// 01/06/2016

or

Calendar TodayDate = Calendar.getInstance();
TodayDate.add(Calendar.DAY_ON_MONTH, -1);//import java.util.*
Date yesterday = cal.getTime();
SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
String Format = format.format(yesterday);
System.out.println(Format);// 01/06/2016

java.sql.Date extends java.util.Date so it has the same information but displays it differently because of overridden toString() method.

If you do something like this you will see it is the same

System.out.println(new java.util.Date(sqlDate.getTime()));

It is advised to use DateFormat or SimpleDateFormat to display data, see the comments.

Can't your SQL server accept strings for dates? The ones I've used can, so I just do something like:

String sqlDate = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd").format(new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy").parse(startDate));

... and pass sqlDate to the parametrized query. Like konrad mentioned, lowercase 'mm' is for minutes, and uppercase 'MM' is for month, so I think that's where your problem was.

A java.util.Date is not a java.sql.Date. It's the other way around. A java.sql.Date is a java.util.Date.

You'll need to convert it to a java.sql.Date by using the constructor that takes a long that a java.util.Date can supply.

java.sql.Date sqlDate = new java.sql.Date(utilDate.getTime());