diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 16459ae5b..6ad3a2aba 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 
     <groupId>com.baidu.hugegraph</groupId>
     <artifactId>hugegraph-common</artifactId>
-    <version>1.7.6</version>
+    <version>1.7.7</version>
 
     <name>hugegraph-common</name>
     <url>https://github.com/hugegraph/hugegraph-common</url>
@@ -260,7 +260,7 @@
                         <manifestEntries>
                             <!-- Must be on one line, otherwise the automatic
                                  upgrade script cannot replace the version number -->
-                            <Implementation-Version>1.7.6.0</Implementation-Version>
+                            <Implementation-Version>1.7.7.0</Implementation-Version>
                         </manifestEntries>
                     </archive>
                 </configuration>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/util/DateUtil.java b/src/main/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/util/DateUtil.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..71e89b5e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/util/DateUtil.java
@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2017 HugeGraph Authors
+ *
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with this
+ * work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. The ASF
+ * licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+ * WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+ * License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package com.baidu.hugegraph.util;
+
+import java.text.ParseException;
+import java.util.Date;
+import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap;
+
+import com.baidu.hugegraph.date.SafeDateFormat;
+import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableMap;
+
+public final class DateUtil {
+
+    public static final Date DATE_ZERO = new Date(0L);
+
+    private static final Map<String, String> VALID_DFS = ImmutableMap.of(
+            "^\\d{4}-\\d{1,2}-\\d{1,2}",
+            "yyyy-MM-dd",
+            "^\\d{4}-\\d{1,2}-\\d{1,2}\\s\\d{2}:\\d{2}:\\d{2}",
+            "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss",
+            "^\\d{4}-\\d{1,2}-\\d{1,2}\\s\\d{2}:\\d{2}:\\d{2}\\.\\d{1,3}",
+            "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS"
+    );
+
+    private static final Map<String, SafeDateFormat> DATE_FORMATS =
+                                                     new ConcurrentHashMap<>();
+
+    public static Date parse(String value) {
+        for (Map.Entry<String, String> entry : VALID_DFS.entrySet()) {
+            if (value.matches(entry.getKey())) {
+                try {
+                    return parse(value, entry.getValue());
+                } catch (ParseException e) {
+                    throw new IllegalArgumentException(String.format(
+                              "%s, expect format: %s",
+                              e.getMessage(), entry.getValue()));
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        throw new IllegalArgumentException(String.format(
+                  "Expected date format is: %s, but got '%s'",
+                  VALID_DFS.values(), value));
+    }
+
+    public static Date parse(String value, String df) throws ParseException {
+        SafeDateFormat dateFormat = getDateFormat(df);
+        return dateFormat.parse(value);
+    }
+
+    public static Date now() {
+        return new Date();
+    }
+
+    private static SafeDateFormat getDateFormat(String df) {
+        SafeDateFormat dateFormat = DATE_FORMATS.get(df);
+        if (dateFormat == null) {
+            dateFormat = new SafeDateFormat(df);
+            /*
+             * Specify whether or not date/time parsing is to be lenient.
+             * With lenient parsing, the parser may use heuristics to interpret
+             * inputs that do not precisely match this object's format.
+             * With strict parsing, inputs must match this object's format.
+             */
+            dateFormat.setLenient(false);
+            SafeDateFormat previous = DATE_FORMATS.putIfAbsent(df, dateFormat);
+            if (previous != null) {
+                dateFormat = previous;
+            }
+        }
+        return dateFormat;
+    }
+
+    public static Object toPattern(String df) {
+        SafeDateFormat dateFormat = getDateFormat(df);
+        return dateFormat.toPattern();
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/version/CommonVersion.java b/src/main/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/version/CommonVersion.java
index e1777ba6a..dc8d9c7ee 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/version/CommonVersion.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/version/CommonVersion.java
@@ -27,5 +27,5 @@ public class CommonVersion {
 
     // The second parameter of Version.of() is for all-in-one JAR
     public static final Version VERSION = Version.of(CommonVersion.class,
-                                                     "1.7.6");
+                                                     "1.7.7");
 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/unit/UnitTestSuite.java b/src/test/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/unit/UnitTestSuite.java
index dc90b35bf..d0d651be1 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/unit/UnitTestSuite.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/unit/UnitTestSuite.java
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@
 import com.baidu.hugegraph.unit.rest.RestResultTest;
 import com.baidu.hugegraph.unit.util.BytesTest;
 import com.baidu.hugegraph.unit.util.CollectionUtilTest;
+import com.baidu.hugegraph.unit.util.DateUtilTest;
 import com.baidu.hugegraph.unit.util.HashUtilTest;
 import com.baidu.hugegraph.unit.util.InsertionOrderUtilTest;
 import com.baidu.hugegraph.unit.util.LongEncodingTest;
@@ -57,6 +58,7 @@
 import com.baidu.hugegraph.unit.util.TimeUtilTest;
 import com.baidu.hugegraph.unit.util.VersionUtilTest;
 import com.baidu.hugegraph.unit.version.VersionTest;
+import com.baidu.hugegraph.util.DateUtil;
 
 @RunWith(Suite.class)
 @Suite.SuiteClasses({
@@ -90,6 +92,7 @@
     VersionUtilTest.class,
     LongEncodingTest.class,
     OrderLimitMapTest.class,
+    DateUtilTest.class,
 
     ExtraParamTest.class,
     LicenseCreateParamTest.class,
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/unit/util/DateUtilTest.java b/src/test/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/unit/util/DateUtilTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b84384e07
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/unit/util/DateUtilTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2017 HugeGraph Authors
+ *
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with this
+ * work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. The ASF
+ * licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+ * WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+ * License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package com.baidu.hugegraph.unit.util;
+
+import java.util.Date;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import com.baidu.hugegraph.testutil.Assert;
+import com.baidu.hugegraph.unit.BaseUnitTest;
+import com.baidu.hugegraph.util.DateUtil;
+
+public class DateUtilTest extends BaseUnitTest {
+
+    @Test
+    public void testParse() {
+        Date date1 = DateUtil.parse("2020-06-12 12:00:00");
+        Date date2 = DateUtil.parse("2020-06-13");
+        Assert.assertTrue(date1.before(date2));
+
+        Assert.assertThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class, () -> {
+            DateUtil.parse("2018-");
+        }, e -> {
+            Assert.assertContains("Expected date format is:",
+                                  e.getMessage());
+        });
+
+        Assert.assertThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class, () -> {
+            DateUtil.parse("2018-15-07 12:00:00");
+        }, e -> {
+            Assert.assertContains(", expect format: ", e.getMessage());
+        });
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testNow() {
+        Date date1 = DateUtil.now();
+        try {
+            Thread.sleep(100);
+        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
+            // ignore
+        }
+        Date date2 = DateUtil.now();
+        Assert.assertTrue(date1.before(date2));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testToPattern() {
+        Object pattern = DateUtil.toPattern("yyyyMMdd HH:mm:ss.SSS");
+        Assert.assertEquals("yyyyMMdd HH:mm:ss.SSS", pattern);
+
+        Assert.assertThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class, () -> {
+            DateUtil.toPattern("iyyyyMMdd");
+        }, e -> {
+            Assert.assertContains("Illegal pattern character 'i'", e.getMessage());
+        });
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/unit/util/ReflectionUtilTest.java b/src/test/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/unit/util/ReflectionUtilTest.java
index 79f365a1d..7b402daf1 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/unit/util/ReflectionUtilTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/baidu/hugegraph/unit/util/ReflectionUtilTest.java
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ public void testClasses() throws IOException {
         @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
         List<ClassInfo> classes = IteratorUtils.toList(ReflectionUtil.classes(
                                   "com.baidu.hugegraph.util"));
-        Assert.assertEquals(15, classes.size());
+        Assert.assertEquals(16, classes.size());
         classes.sort((c1, c2) -> c1.getName().compareTo(c2.getName()));
         Assert.assertEquals("com.baidu.hugegraph.util.Bytes",
                             classes.get(0).getName());
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ public void testClasses() throws IOException {
         Assert.assertEquals("com.baidu.hugegraph.util.CollectionUtil",
                             classes.get(2).getName());
         Assert.assertEquals("com.baidu.hugegraph.util.VersionUtil",
-                            classes.get(14).getName());
+                            classes.get(15).getName());
     }
 
     @Test