Convert string with unknown format (any format) to date
Tested in swift 4, xcode 9
extension String {
var detectDate: Date? {
let detector = try? NSDataDetector(types: NSTextCheckingResult.CheckingType.date.rawValue)
let matches = detector?.matches(in: self, options: [], range: NSMakeRange(0, self.utf16.count))
return matches?.first?.date
}
}
Test:
print("2018-11-04T23:59:00+00:00".detectDate ?? "")
// 2018-11-04 10:00:00 +0000
print("2018/11/4".detectDate ?? "")
// 2018-11-04 10:00:00 +0000
Xcode 11.4 • Swift 5.2 or later
You can use NSDataDetector as follow:
extension String {
var nsString: NSString { self as NSString }
var length: Int { nsString.length }
var nsRange: NSRange { .init(location: 0, length: length) }
var detectDates: [Date]? {
try? NSDataDetector(types: NSTextCheckingResult.CheckingType.date.rawValue)
.matches(in: self, range: nsRange)
.compactMap(\.date)
}
}
extension Collection where Iterator.Element == String {
var dates: [Date] { compactMap(\.detectDates).flatMap{$0}
}
}
Testing:
let dateStrings = ["January 3, 1966","Jan 3, 1966", "3 Jan 1966"]
for dateString in dateStrings {
if let dateDetected = dateString.detectDates?.first {
print(dateDetected)
// 1966-01-03 14:00:00 +0000
// 1966-01-03 14:00:00 +0000
// 1966-01-03 14:00:00 +0000
}
}
let dateStrings = ["January 3, 1966","Jan 3, 1966", "3 Jan 1966"]
for date in dateStrings.dates {
print(date)
// 1966-01-03 14:00:00 +0000
// 1966-01-03 14:00:00 +0000
// 1966-01-03 14:00:00 +0000
}