Comparing NSDates in objective-c

Question

I have an 2 NSDates, a startdate and enddate. These dates have the following format.

startDate = 2013-02-22 12:00:00 +0000; endDate = 2013-02-25 13:00:00 +0000;

Now I want to compare these dates. Therefore I've this code.

if([event.startDate isEqualToDate:event.endDate]){
     NSLog(@"event %@ is in the same day",event.title);
}else{
     NSLog(@"event %@ is NOT in the same day",event.title);
}

But the problem is that it always gets in the else-statement. I want that if the startDate and endDate are in the same day,month and year they give me the first NSLog else they give me the second NSLog

Any help?

Remove the time elements from the dates: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3916392/removing-time-components-from-an-nsdate-object-using-objective-c-cocoa — trojanfoe, Feb 13 '13 at 08:23
You are turning the strings into dates with an NSDateFormatter ? — Warren Burton, Feb 13 '13 at 08:28

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 13 '13 at 08:32

1

Try this :

if ([event.startDate compare:event.endDate]==NSOrderedSame)
{
    // The same
}
else
{
    // Not the same
}

EDIT : And now that I've noticed (@trojanfoe's correct comment) : make sure the time is equal too, or just remove it from your NSDate objects.

answered Feb 13 '13 at 08:32

Dr.Kameleon

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isEqualToDate: method detects sub-second differences between dates. If you want to compare dates with a less fine granularity, use timeIntervalSinceDate: to compare the two dates. – Mrunal Feb 13 '13 at 08:35

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 13 '13 at 08:39

    NSCalendar *calendar = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];
    NSDateComponents *startDateComponents = [calendar components:(NSYearCalendarUnit | NSMonthCalendarUnit |  NSDayCalendarUnit) fromDate:startDate];
    NSDateComponents *endDateComponents = [calendar components:(NSYearCalendarUnit | NSMonthCalendarUnit |  NSDayCalendarUnit) fromDate:endDate];
    NSDate *startDate = [calendar dateFromComponents:startDateComponents];
    NSDate *endDate = [calendar dateFromComponents:endDateComponents];

    if([startDate isEqualToDate:endDate])
    {
        NSLog(@"event %@ is in the same day",event.title);
    }
    else{
        NSLog(@"event %@ is NOT in the same day",event.title);
    }

Comparing NSDates in objective-c

2 Answers2