2) If the answer to #1 is "Yes", then is it safe to replace the "writeString" call above with the following?
SimpleDateFormat df = new java.text.SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd"); writer.writeString(df.format((java.sql.Date) val));
Or is there some reason why we need to avoid using SimpleDateFormat?
Two reasons not to write it exactly like that:
o SimpleDateFormat is locale dependent. A fixed Locale should be set. Far too much picks up the default locale, and other globals.
o It's not exactly fast to create a new date formatter every time.
Tom Hawtin
