NSDateFormatter "Month" in 3 letters instead of full word

Question

    NSDateFormatter* formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [formatter setDateFormat:@"dd-MM-YYYY HH:mm"];        
    [formatter setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone systemTimeZone]];

If i choose MM i get the month in number: 09-05-2012 15:33 If i choose MMMM i get the month in word: 09-May-2012 15:33

What i wanted, was the month in 3 letters abbreviation.
Eg: January would be Jan

In this case May is correct because it only has 3 letters.

Use `MMM` for short month name – onmyway133 Aug 09 '17 at 11:52 — onmyway133, Aug 09 '17 at 11:52

score 57 · Accepted Answer · answered May 09 '12 at 15:00

57

Have you tried: [formatter setDateFormat:@"dd-MMM-YYYY HH:mm"]; and then [formatter stringFromDate:someNSDate];

answered May 09 '12 at 15:00

graver

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M gives me number MMM gives me full word – bruno May 09 '12 at 15:02
11

Maybe you are right, i´m trying with May. Should use a different month, but i´m on the simulator... – bruno May 09 '12 at 15:10
11

Hahaha, "May" is the only non-conclusive month to test this on. – Gazzini Apr 15 '15 at 18:32
This post helped me: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/35969183/nsdateformatter-fails-parsing-three-letter-abbreviation-of-german-month-march-ju – iljer Apr 10 '16 at 12:41

score 32 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 21 '12 at 16:47

32

IF you get the two things in the wrong order, you don't get the expected output.

[formatter setDateFormat:@"MMM"];
[formatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterMediumStyle];

does NOT give the same results as:

[formatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterMediumStyle];
[formatter setDateFormat:@"MMM"];

(The second of these two snippets is now happily handing out Sep Oct etc in my app)

answered Aug 21 '12 at 16:47

Dan Lingman

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dateStyle and dateFormat are different things. One overrides the other, `NSDateFormatterMediumStyle` uses the system wide format for short dates, while setting the `dateFormat` to `MMM` specifies that only the shot month value should be used. – João Eduardo Sep 05 '22 at 16:11

score 9 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 09 '16 at 10:07

9

In SWIFT

let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()

dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd MMM yyyy HH:mm"

dateFormatter.stringFromDate(NSDate())

answered Feb 09 '16 at 10:07

hellosheikh

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score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 21 '18 at 06:43

This is a stripped down solution that works with Swift 4 in producing a 3 letter month output:

let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd MMM YYYY, HH:mm:ss"

And to verify:

print(dateFormatter.string(from: Date())) // 20 Mar 2018, 23:41:40

As previously noted, MMM is the correct syntax for getting the desired month output.

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 13 '18 at 15:35

for swift 4 go with:

if let dateFormatter = DateFormatter(){
    dateFormatter.dateStyle = .medium
    // eventually:
    //let locale = Locale(identifier: ...                       
    //dateFormatter!.locale = locale
    dateFormatter.dateStyle = .medium
    dateFormatter!.dateFormat = "dd MMM YYYY, HH:mm:ss"
 } else..
        ..

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered May 09 '12 at 15:03

2

Actually you can set your dateStyle to medium (ie 'Jan', 'Feb' etc) like this:

[formatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterMediumStyle];

answered May 09 '12 at 15:03

Alladinian

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 05 '19 at 23:37

1

For those who do not get a full month strong with "MMM", you can get it with

dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd MMMM yyyy"

Tested on Swift 4.2

answered Oct 05 '19 at 23:37

Totoro

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NSDateFormatter "Month" in 3 letters instead of full word

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