public Timestamp getTimestamp(String fieldName, HCatSchema recordSchema) throws HCatException {
    return (Timestamp) get(fieldName, recordSchema, Timestamp.class);
  }
Note that the proper way to construct a java.sql.Date for use with this object is 
Date.valueOf("1999-12-31").
hcatalog/core/src/main/java/org/apache/hive/hcatalog/data/HCatRecord.java