Converting NSString to NSDate (and back again)

Question

How would I convert an NSString like "01/02/10" (meaning 1st February 2010) into an NSDate? And how could I turn the NSDate back into a string?

Answer 1

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);

Answer 2

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; }];

Answer 3

When using fixed-format dates you need to set the date formatter locale to "en_US_POSIX".

Taken from the Data Formatting Guide

If you're working with fixed-format dates, you should first set the locale of the date formatter to something appropriate for your fixed format. In most cases the best locale to choose is en_US_POSIX, a locale that's specifically designed to yield US English results regardless of both user and system preferences. en_US_POSIX is also invariant in time (if the US, at some point in the future, changes the way it formats dates, en_US will change to reflect the new behavior, but en_US_POSIX will not), and between platforms (en_US_POSIX works the same on iPhone OS as it does on OS X, and as it does on other platforms).

Swift 3 or later

extension Formatter {
    static let customDate: DateFormatter = {
        let formatter = DateFormatter()
        formatter.locale = Locale(identifier: "en_US_POSIX")
        formatter.dateFormat = "dd/MM/yy"
        return formatter
    }()
    static let time: DateFormatter = {
        let formatter = DateFormatter()
        formatter.locale = Locale(identifier: "en_US_POSIX")
        formatter.dateFormat = "HH:mm"
        return formatter
    }()
    static let weekdayName: DateFormatter = {
        let formatter = DateFormatter()
        formatter.dateFormat = "cccc"
        return formatter
    }()
    static let month: DateFormatter = {
        let formatter = DateFormatter()
        formatter.dateFormat = "LLLL"
        return formatter
    }()
}

---

extension Date {
    var customDate: String {
        return Formatter.customDate.string(from: self)
    }
    var customTime: String {
        return Formatter.time.string(from: self)
    }
    var weekdayName: String {
        return Formatter.weekdayName.string(from: self)
    }
    var monthName: String {
        return Formatter.month.string(from: self)
    }
}

extension String {
    var customDate: Date? {
        return Formatter.customDate.date(from: self)
    }
}

---

usage:

// this will be displayed like this regardless of the user and system preferences
Date().customTime          //  "16:50"
Date().customDate          //  "06/05/17"
// this will be displayed according to user and system preferences
Date().weekdayName         //  "Saturday"
Date().monthName           //  "May"

---

Parsing the custom date and converting the date back to the same string format:

let dateString = "01/02/10"

if let date = dateString.customDate {
    print(date.customDate)   // "01/02/10\n"
    print(date.monthName)    // customDate
}

Here it is all elements you can use to customize it as necessary:

Answer 4

Why not add a category to NSString?

// NSString+Date.h
@interface NSString (Date)
+ (NSDate*)stringDateFromString:(NSString*)string;
+ (NSString*)stringDateFromDate:(NSDate*)date;
@end


// NSString+Date.m
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc]init];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"EEE, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss ZZZ"];

NSDate *date = [dateFormatter dateFromString:stringDate ];
[dateFormatter release];
+ (NSDateFormatter*)stringDateFormatter
{
    static NSDateFormatter* formatter = nil;
    if (formatter == nil)
    {
        formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
        [formatter setDateFormat:@"EEE, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss ZZZ"];
    }   
    return formatter;
}

+ (NSDate*)stringDateFromString:(NSString*)string
{
    return [[NSString stringDateFormatter] dateFromString:string];
}

+ (NSString*)stringDateFromDate:(NSDate*)date
{
    return [[NSString stringDateFormatter] stringFromDate:date];
}


// Usage (#import "NSString+Date.h") or add in "YOUR PROJECT".pch file
NSString* string = [NSString stringDateFromDate:[NSDate date]];
NSDate* date = [NSString stringDateFromString:string];

Answer 5

using "10" for representing a year is not good, because it can be 1910, 1810, etc. You probably should use 4 digits for that.

If you can change the date to something like

yyyymmdd

Then you can use:

// Convert string to date object
NSDateFormatter *dateFormat = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormat setDateFormat:@"yyyyMMdd"];
NSDate *date = [dateFormat dateFromString:dateStr];  

// Convert date object to desired output format
[dateFormat setDateFormat:@"EEEE MMMM d, YYYY"];
dateStr = [dateFormat stringFromDate:date];  
[dateFormat release];

Answer 6

NSString *dateStr = @"Tue, 25 May 2010 12:53:58 +0000";

// Convert string to date object
NSDateFormatter *dateFormat = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormat setDateFormat:@"EE, d LLLL yyyy HH:mm:ss Z"];
NSDate *date = [dateFormat dateFromString:dateStr]; 
[dateFormat release];

Answer 7

// Convert string to date 

NSDateFormatter *dateFormat = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormat setDateFormat:@"yyyyMMdd"];
NSDate *date = [dateFormat dateFromString:dateStr];  

// Convert Date to string

[dateFormat setDateFormat:@"EEEE MMMM d, YYYY"];
dateStr = [dateFormat stringFromDate:date];  
[dateFormat release];

Answer 8

Use this method to convert from NSString to NSdate:

-(NSDate *)getDateFromString:(NSString *)pstrDate
{
    NSDateFormatter* myFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [myFormatter setDateFormat:@"dd/MM/yyyy"];
    NSDate* myDate = [myFormatter dateFromString:pstrDate];
    return myDate;
}

Answer 9

NSString *mystr=@"Your string date";

NSCalendar *cal = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];
NSDate *now = [dateFormatter dateFromString:mystr];

Nslog(@"%@",now);

If you want set the format use below code:

NSString *dateString = @"01-02-2010";
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];

// this is important - we set our input date format to match our input string
// if format doesn't match you'll get nil from your string, so be careful
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"dd-MM-yyyy"];
NSDate *dateFromString = [[NSDate alloc] init];

// voila!
dateFromString = [dateFormatter dateFromString:dateString];
Nslog(@"%@",[dateFormatter dateFromString:dateString]);

Answer 10

If anyone is interested in doing something like this in Swift these days, I have a start on something, although it's not perfect.

func detectDate(dateString: NSString) -> NSDate {

    var error: NSError?
    let detector: NSDataDetector = NSDataDetector.dataDetectorWithTypes(NSTextCheckingType.Date.toRaw(), error: &error)!

    if error == nil {
        var matches = detector.matchesInString(dateString, options: nil, range: NSMakeRange(0, dateString.length))

        let currentLocale = NSLocale.currentLocale()
        for match in matches {
            match.resultType == NSTextCheckingType.Date
            NSLog("Date: \(match.date.description)")
            return match.date
        }
    }
    return NSDate()
}

Answer 11

Date to NSString

NSString *dateString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@",[NSDate date]];
NSLog(@"string: %@",dateString ); //2015-03-24 12:28:49 +0000

NSString to NSDate

NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[formatter setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss Z"];
NSDate *date = [formatter dateFromString:dateString];
NSLog(@"date: %@", date); //015-03-24 12:28:49 +0000

Answer 12

You can use extensions for this.

extension NSDate {
    //NSString to NSDate
    convenience
    init(dateString:String) {
        let nsDateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
        nsDateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss"
        // Add the locale if required here
        let dateObj = nsDateFormatter.dateFromString(dateString)
        self.init(timeInterval:0, sinceDate:dateObj!)
    }

    //NSDate to time string
    func getTime() -> String {
        let timeFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
        timeFormatter.dateFormat = "hh:mm"
        //Can also set the default styles for date or time using .timeStyle or .dateStyle
        return timeFormatter.stringFromDate(self)
    }

    //NSDate to date string
    func getDate() -> String {
        let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
        dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd, MMM"
        return dateFormatter.stringFromDate(self)
    }

    //NSDate to String
    func getString() -> String {
        let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
        dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss"
        return dateFormatter.stringFromDate(self)
    }
}

So while execution actual code will look like follows

    var dateObjFromString = NSDate(dateString: cutDateTime)
    var dateString = dateObjFromString.getDate()
    var timeString = dateObjFromString.getTime()
    var stringFromDate = dateObjFromString.getString()

There are some defaults methods as well but I guess it might not work for the format you have given from documentation

    -dateFromString(_:)
    -stringFromDate(_:)
    -localizedStringFromDate(_ date: NSDate,
                     dateStyle dateStyle: NSDateFormatterStyle,
                     timeStyle timeStyle: NSDateFormatterStyle) -> String

Answer 13

Best practice is to build yourself a general class where you put all your general use methods, methods useful in almost all projects and there add the code suggested by @Pavan as:

+ (NSDate *)getDateOutOfString:(NSString *)passedString andDateFormat:(NSString *)dateFormat{

    NSString *dateString = passedString;
    NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [dateFormatter setDateFormat:dateFormat];
    NSDate *dateFromString = [[NSDate alloc] init];
    dateFromString = [dateFormatter dateFromString:dateString];
    return dateFromString;

}

.. and so on for all other useful methods

By doing so you start building a clean reusable code for you app. Cheers!

Answer 14

As per Swift 2.2

You can get easily NSDate from String and String from NSDate. e.g.

First set date formatter

let formatter = NSDateFormatter();
formatter.dateStyle = NSDateFormatterStyle.MediumStyle
formatter.timeStyle = .NoStyle
formatter.dateFormat = "MM/dd/yyyy"

Now get date from string and vice versa.

let strDate = formatter.stringFromDate(NSDate())
print(strDate)
let dateFromStr = formatter.dateFromString(strDate)
print(dateFromStr)

Now enjoy.

Answer 15

NSString to NSDate or NSDate to NSString

//This method is used to get NSDate from string 
//Pass the date formate ex-"dd-MM-yyyy hh:mm a"
+ (NSDate*)getDateFromString:(NSString *)dateString withFormate:(NSString *)formate  {

    // Converted date from date string
    NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [dateFormatter setLocale:[[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"en_US"]];
    [dateFormatter setDateFormat:formate];
    NSDate *convertedDate         = [dateFormatter dateFromString:dateString];
    return convertedDate;
}

//This method is used to get the NSString for NSDate
//Pass the date formate ex-"dd-MM-yyyy hh:mm a"
+ (NSString *)getDateStringFromDate:(NSDate *)date withFormate:(NSString *)formate {

    // Converted date from date string
    NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    //[dateFormatter setLocale:[[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"en_US"]];
    [dateFormatter setDateFormat:formate];
    NSString *convertedDate         = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:date];
    return convertedDate;
}

Answer 16

The above examples aren't simply written for Swift 3.0+

Update - Swift 3.0+ - Convert Date To String

let date = Date() // insert your date data here
var dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd" // add custom format if you'd like 
var dateString = dateFormatter.string(from: date)

Answer 17

String To Date

var dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.format = "dd/MM/yyyy"

var dateFromString: Date? = dateFormatter.date(from: dateString) //pass string here

Date To String

 var dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
 dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd-MM-yyyy"
 let newDate = dateFormatter.string(from: date) //pass Date here