Scala how to instantiate new Option[java.sql.Date] type

Question

I have var date_of_birth2 : Option[java.sql.Date] = None.

Later I have to fill date_of_birth2 by string.

 String date = "01/01/1990"
 var formate = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy").parse(date)
 var aDate = new java.sql.Date(formate.getTime()); 

But aDate is just the type of java.sql.Date. How can I assign?

var mdate_of_birth2 : Option[java.sql.Date] = date // date is just String type

Answer 1

Instead of explicitly using a Some, as suggested by @hezamu, you could use the apply method on the Option companion like so:

val maybeADate:Option[Date] = Option(aDate)

In this case, in the off chance that aDate was null, then your Option would be a None instead of Some(null) which would be undesirable.

Answer 2

Since the parse method will throw an exception if there is a formatting error, you might also consider using Try, to squash failures to None.

val aDate = Try(new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy").parse(date))
    .map(d => new java.sql.Date(d.getTime()))
    .toOption

If you do want it to throw an exception, then I would go with @cmbaxter's answer using Option.apply.

Answer 3

You wrap it in Some:

var mdate_of_birth2: Option[java.sql.Date] = Some(aDate)

You should see if you can refactor your code to make it a val, though.