How to format/parse dates with LocalDateTime in Java 8 - Example Tutorial

One of the common tasks in a Java project is formatting or parsing data to String and vice-versa. Parsing date means you have a String that represents a date like "2017-08-3" and you want to convert it into an object which represents the date in Java, like java.util.Date in pre-Java 8 world and LocalDate or LocalDatetime in Java 8 world. Similarly, formatting a date means converting a date instance into a String, for example, you have a Date object or LocalDatetime object and you want a String in dd-MM-yyyy format. Java 8 API provides good support for formatting and parsing dates.