Converting NSString to NSDate (and back again)
UPDATE 2019 (Swift 4):
Made a Date extension for that. It uses NSDataDetector instead of NSDateFormatter.
// Just throw at it without any format.
var date: Date? = Date.FromString("02-14-2019 17:05:05")
Pretty enjoyable, it even recognizes things like "Tomorrow at 5".
XCTAssertEqual(Date.FromString("2019-02-14"), Date.FromCalendar(2019, 2, 14))
XCTAssertEqual(Date.FromString("2019.02.14"), Date.FromCalendar(2019, 2, 14))
XCTAssertEqual(Date.FromString("2019/02/14"), Date.FromCalendar(2019, 2, 14))
XCTAssertEqual(Date.FromString("2019 Feb 14"), Date.FromCalendar(2019, 2, 14))
XCTAssertEqual(Date.FromString("2019 Feb 14th"), Date.FromCalendar(2019, 2, 14))
XCTAssertEqual(Date.FromString("20190214"), Date.FromCalendar(2019, 2, 14))
XCTAssertEqual(Date.FromString("02-14-2019"), Date.FromCalendar(2019, 2, 14))
XCTAssertEqual(Date.FromString("02.14.2019 5:00 PM"), Date.FromCalendar(2019, 2, 14, 17))
XCTAssertEqual(Date.FromString("02/14/2019 17:00"), Date.FromCalendar(2019, 2, 14, 17))
XCTAssertEqual(Date.FromString("14 February 2019 at 5 hour"), Date.FromCalendar(2019, 2, 14, 17))
XCTAssertEqual(Date.FromString("02-14-2019 17:05:05"), Date.FromCalendar(2019, 2, 14, 17, 05, 05))
XCTAssertEqual(Date.FromString("17:05, 14 February 2019 (UTC)"), Date.FromCalendar(2019, 2, 14, 17, 05))
XCTAssertEqual(Date.FromString("02-14-2019 17:05:05 GMT"), Date.FromCalendar(2019, 2, 14, 17, 05, 05))
XCTAssertEqual(Date.FromString("02-13-2019 Tomorrow"), Date.FromCalendar(2019, 2, 14))
XCTAssertEqual(Date.FromString("2019 Feb 14th Tomorrow at 5"), Date.FromCalendar(2019, 2, 14, 17))
Goes like:
extension Date
{
public static func FromString(_ dateString: String) -> Date?
{
// Date detector.
let detector = try! NSDataDetector(types: NSTextCheckingResult.CheckingType.date.rawValue)
// Enumerate matches.
var matchedDate: Date?
var matchedTimeZone: TimeZone?
detector.enumerateMatches(
in: dateString,
options: [],
range: NSRange(location: 0, length: dateString.utf16.count),
using:
{
(eachResult, _, _) in
// Lookup matches.
matchedDate = eachResult?.date
matchedTimeZone = eachResult?.timeZone
// Convert to GMT (!) if no timezone detected.
if matchedTimeZone == nil, let detectedDate = matchedDate
{ matchedDate = Calendar.current.date(byAdding: .second, value: TimeZone.current.secondsFromGMT(), to: detectedDate)! }
})
// Result.
return matchedDate
}
}
UPDATE 2014:
Made an NSString extension for that.
// Simple as this.
date = dateString.dateValue;
Thanks to NSDataDetector, it recognizes a whole lot of format.
'2014-01-16' dateValue is <2014-01-16 11:00:00 +0000>
'2014.01.16' dateValue is <2014-01-16 11:00:00 +0000>
'2014/01/16' dateValue is <2014-01-16 11:00:00 +0000>
'2014 Jan 16' dateValue is <2014-01-16 11:00:00 +0000>
'2014 Jan 16th' dateValue is <2014-01-16 11:00:00 +0000>
'20140116' dateValue is <2014-01-16 11:00:00 +0000>
'01-16-2014' dateValue is <2014-01-16 11:00:00 +0000>
'01.16.2014' dateValue is <2014-01-16 11:00:00 +0000>
'01/16/2014' dateValue is <2014-01-16 11:00:00 +0000>
'16 January 2014' dateValue is <2014-01-16 11:00:00 +0000>
'01-16-2014 17:05:05' dateValue is <2014-01-16 16:05:05 +0000>
'01-16-2014 T 17:05:05 UTC' dateValue is <2014-01-16 17:05:05 +0000>
'17:05, 1 January 2014 (UTC)' dateValue is <2014-01-01 16:05:00 +0000>
Part of eppz!kit, grab the category NSString+EPPZKit.h from GitHub.
ORIGINAL ANSWER 2013:
Whether you're not sure (or don't care) about the date format contained in the string, use NSDataDetector for parsing date.
//Role players.
NSString *dateString = @"Wed, 03 Jul 2013 02:16:02 -0700";
__block NSDate *detectedDate;
//Detect.
NSDataDetector *detector = [NSDataDetector dataDetectorWithTypes:NSTextCheckingAllTypes error:nil];
[detector enumerateMatchesInString:dateString
options:kNilOptions
range:NSMakeRange(0, [dateString length])
usingBlock:^(NSTextCheckingResult *result, NSMatchingFlags flags, BOOL *stop)
{ detectedDate = result.date; }];
Swift 4 and later
Updated: 2018
String to Date
var dateString = "02-03-2017"
var dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
// This is important - we set our input date format to match our input string
// if the format doesn't match you'll get nil from your string, so be careful
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd-MM-yyyy"
//`date(from:)` returns an optional so make sure you unwrap when using.
var dateFromString: Date? = dateFormatter.date(from: dateString)
Date to String
var formatter = DateFormatter()
formatter.dateFormat = "dd-MM-yyyy"
guard let unwrappedDate = dateFromString else { return }
//Using the dateFromString variable from before.
let stringDate: String = formatter.string(from: dateFromString)
Swift 3
Updated: 20th July 2017
String to NSDate
var dateString = "02-03-2017"
var dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
// This is important - we set our input date format to match our input string
// if the format doesn't match you'll get nil from your string, so be careful
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd-MM-yyyy"
var dateFromString = dateFormatter.date(from: dateString)
NSDate to String
var formatter = DateFormatter()
formatter.dateFormat = "dd-MM-yyyy"
let stringDate: String = formatter.string(from: dateFromString)
Swift
Updated: 22nd October 2015
String to NSDate
var dateString = "01-02-2010"
var dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
// this is imporant - we set our input date format to match our input string
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd-MM-yyyy"
// voila!
var dateFromString = dateFormatter.dateFromString(dateString)
NSDate to String
var formatter = NSDateFormatter()
formatter.dateFormat = "dd-MM-yyyy"
let stringDate: String = formatter.stringFromDate(NSDate())
println(stringDate)
Objective-C
NSString to NSDate
NSString *dateString = @"01-02-2010";
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"dd-MM-yyyy"];
NSDate *dateFromString = [dateFormatter dateFromString:dateString];
NSDate convert to NSString:
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"dd-MM-yyyy"];
NSString *stringDate = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:[NSDate date]];
NSLog(@"%@", stringDate);