How to calculate how much time passed from the date with timezone?

Question

I get from the server a date with this format:

2016-05-27 17:33:43+0400

Now, I want to detect, how much time passed since that date? For example 1 day 5 hours 10 minutes 20 seconds.

How can I do it? I know how to calculate this from the timestamp, but do not know how to convert this to a timestamp.

Can anyone help me with it?

For example:

Convert this 2016-05-27 17:33:43+0400 to 1464370423 this

Or maybe there are another solution. I just want to calculate how much time passed since that time

What do you mean "convert to timestamp"? Can you show what output you want and what you have so far? — Paulw11, Jun 03 '16 at 06:55
@Paulw11 I've edited my question and added this: For example, Convert this `2016-05-27 17:33:43+0400` to `1464370423` this Or maybe there are another solution. I just want to calculate how many time passed since that time(how many days, hours, minutes, seconds) — John, Jun 03 '16 at 06:58
Take a look at NSDateFormatter, it allows you to convert NSDate to/from string formats. Once you have an NSDate, you seem to be looking for https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes/NSDate_Class/#//apple_ref/occ/instp/NSDate/timeIntervalSince1970 — David Berry, Jun 03 '16 at 07:07
@Paulw11 I just converted my date to timestamp. I do not get your question. Maybe you can help me to calculate those time distance in another way? — John, Jun 03 '16 at 07:26

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 03 '16 at 07:24

You can use NSDateComponents formatter to get the relative time between two dates. Regarding the date string format you need to use xx for the time zone part.

let dateStr = "2016-05-27 17:33:43+0400"

let formatter = NSDateFormatter()
formatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ssxx"
formatter.calendar = NSCalendar(calendarIdentifier: NSCalendarIdentifierISO8601)
formatter.locale = NSLocale(localeIdentifier: "en_US_POSIX")
if let date = formatter.dateFromString(dateStr) {
    print(date)   // "2016-05-27 13:33:00 +0000\n" -4hs
    let dateComponentsFormatter = NSDateComponentsFormatter()
    dateComponentsFormatter.allowedUnits = [.Day,.Hour,.Minute,.Second]
    dateComponentsFormatter.unitsStyle = .Full
    print(dateComponentsFormatter.stringFromDate(date, toDate: NSDate()) ?? "") // 6 days, 17 hours, 51 minutes, 29 seconds
}

It seems that NSDateFormatter is pretty forgiving. It works with ZZZ ZZZZ ZZZZZ or xx — Paulw11, Jun 03 '16 at 07:36

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 03 '16 at 07:25

given the input string you can convert it to a date and subsequently to an NSTimeInterval since the current time using the following.

let inputDate = "2016-05-27 17:33:43+0400"

let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()

dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ssZZZZZ"

if let aDate = dateFormatter.dateFromString(inputDate) {

    let timeInterval = aDate.timeIntervalSinceNow

    let dateComponentsFormatter = NSDateComponentsFormatter()

    if let dateString = dateComponentsFormatter.stringFromTimeInterval(abs(timeInterval)) {

        print ("Elapsed time=\(dateString)")
    }
}

Output:

Elapsed time=6d 17:51:52

You can get the date as the timestamp in your question using aDate.timeIntervalSince1970

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:31

I suggest that this could help you: How to get the current time as datetime

You can get the current time and calculate the difference using the server time and your current time.

let date = NSDate()
let calendar = NSCalendar.currentCalendar()
let components = calendar.components(.CalendarUnitHour | .CalendarUnitMinute, fromDate: date)
let hour = components.hour
let minutes = components.minute

Hope it helps.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 17 '18 at 20:59

This will tell you

"how many time"

passed since an event.

let date = Date()
let howManyTimePassed = date.timeIntervalSinceNow

TimeInterval is a typealias for a double, meaning its another way to say double. The value of the timeInterval represents seconds.

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 02 '20 at 08:37

Try this class in Swift 5.1:

open class MyDateClass: NSObject {

    private var result:MyDateTime!
    
     init(dateStr: String, inputFormat: String) {
        let formatter = DateFormatter()
        formatter.dateFormat = inputFormat //"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"
        formatter.calendar = Calendar(identifier: .gregorian)
        formatter.locale = Locale(identifier: "en_US_POSIX")
        if let date = formatter.date(from: dateStr) {
            let dateComponentsFormatter = DateComponentsFormatter()
            dateComponentsFormatter.allowedUnits = [.year,.month,.day,.hour,.minute,.second]
            dateComponentsFormatter.unitsStyle = .full
            let strFromat = dateComponentsFormatter.string(from: date, to: Date()) ?? ""
            var trimmedString = strFromat.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "")
            trimmedString = trimmedString.replacingOccurrences(of: "years", with: "")
            trimmedString = trimmedString.replacingOccurrences(of: "months", with: "")
            trimmedString = trimmedString.replacingOccurrences(of: "days", with: "")
            trimmedString = trimmedString.replacingOccurrences(of: "hours", with: "")
            trimmedString = trimmedString.replacingOccurrences(of: "minutes", with: "")
            trimmedString = trimmedString.replacingOccurrences(of: "seconds", with: "")
            let arr = trimmedString.split(separator: ",")
            let result = MyDateTime(year: Int(arr[0]), month: Int(arr[1]), day: Int(arr[2]), hour: Int(arr[3]), minute: Int(arr[4]), second: Int(arr[5]))
            self.result = result
        }
    }
    
    func getDateTime() -> MyDateTime {
        return result
    }
      
}

public struct MyDateTime {
    var year:Int?
    var month:Int?
    var day:Int?
    var hour:Int?
    var minute:Int?
    var second:Int?
}

And this class works like this:

let myClass = MyDateClass(dateStr: "2016-05-27 17:33:43", inputFormat: "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss")
let time = myClass.getDateTime()

Now you can show time as you wish.

How to calculate how much time passed from the date with timezone?

5 Answers5