As already mentioned you have to use DateFormatter to format your Date objects. The easiest way to do it is creating a read-only computed property Date extension.
Read-Only Computed Properties
A computed property with a getter but no setter is known as a
read-only computed property. A read-only computed property always
returns a value, and can be accessed through dot syntax, but cannot be
set to a different value.
Note:
You must declare computed properties—including read-only computed
properties—as variable properties with the var keyword, because their
value is not fixed. The let keyword is only used for constant
properties, to indicate that their values cannot be changed once they
are set as part of instance initialization.
You can simplify the declaration of a read-only computed property by
removing the get keyword and its braces:
extension Formatter {
static let date = DateFormatter()
}
extension Date {
var europeanFormattedEn_US : String {
Formatter.date.calendar = Calendar(identifier: .iso8601)
Formatter.date.locale = Locale(identifier: "en_US_POSIX")
Formatter.date.timeZone = .current
Formatter.date.dateFormat = "dd/M/yyyy, H:mm"
return Formatter.date.string(from: self)
}
}
To convert it back you can create another read-only computed property but as a string extension:
extension String {
var date: Date? {
return Formatter.date.date(from: self)
}
func dateFormatted(with dateFormat: String = "dd/M/yyyy, H:mm", calendar: Calendar = Calendar(identifier: .iso8601), defaultDate: Date? = nil, locale: Locale = Locale(identifier: "en_US_POSIX"), timeZone: TimeZone = .current) -> Date? {
Formatter.date.calendar = calendar
Formatter.date.defaultDate = defaultDate ?? calendar.date(bySettingHour: 12, minute: 0, second: 0, of: Date())
Formatter.date.locale = locale
Formatter.date.timeZone = timeZone
Formatter.date.dateFormat = dateFormat
return Formatter.date.date(from: self)
}
}
Usage:
let dateFormatted = Date().europeanFormattedEn_US //"29/9/2018, 16:16"
if let date = dateFormatted.date {
print(date.description(with:.current)) // Saturday, September 29, 2018 at 4:16:00 PM Brasilia Standard Time\n"\
date.europeanFormattedEn_US // "29/9/2018, 16:27"
}
let dateString = "14/7/2016"
if let date = dateString.toDateFormatted(with: "dd/M/yyyy") {
print(date.description(with: .current))
// Thursday, July 14, 2016 at 12:00:00 PM Brasilia Standard Time\n"
}