dateFromString returning nil

Question

I have a function to convert NSString to NSDate.

+ (NSDate *)getNSDateFromString:(NSString *)strDate andFormat:(NSString *)format{
    NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [formatter setDateFormat : format];
    NSString *stringTime = strDate;
    NSDate *dateTime = [formatter dateFromString:stringTime];
    return dateTime;
}

The value of strDate is "27-Mar-2018 18:28:09". The format is "dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss"

That function is returning nil value. Can anyone help on this please. Thanks.

Possible duplicate of [NSDateFormatter dateFromString Always Returns nil](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19300032/nsdateformatter-datefromstring-always-returns-nil) — Vinaykrishnan, Mar 27 '18 at 10:44

Krunal · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-27T10:50:22.317

6

Change date format to dd-MMM-yyyy HH:mm:ss

Here are nice references to understand date format string: Quick Guide to Objective-C DateFormatting & Date_Field_Symbol_Table

y = year
Q = quarter
M = month
w = week of year
W = week of month
d = day of the month
D = day of year
E = day of week
a = period (AM or PM)
h = hour (1-12)
H = hour (0-23)
m = minute
s = second

If you match this with your date components

27-Mar-2018 18:28:09 = dd-MMM-yyyy HH:mm:ss

Where

27   = dd (date day)
Mar  = MMM (Month)
2018 = yyyy (year)
18   = HH (HH - 24 hours format and hh - 12 hours format)
28   = mm (minutes)
09   = ss (seconds)

edited Mar 27 '18 at 10:50

answered Mar 27 '18 at 10:36

Krunal

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To support his answer - MMM is for the month name in short form. – Nitish Mar 27 '18 at 10:38
1

@Nitish - Thank you, I 'm just going to add ful description about each components with more details – Krunal Mar 27 '18 at 10:40
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Yeah.. that works for me.. Thanks for sharing those. I am so clear now. – Nyein Ei Ei Tun Mar 28 '18 at 02:21

Atanu Mondal · Answer 2 · 2018-03-27T11:27:10.063

-1

As your date string is "27-Mar-2018 18:28:09". The format should be "dd-MMM-yyyy HH:mm:ss".

Change the format from "dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss" to "dd-MMM-yyyy HH:mm:ss"

edited Mar 27 '18 at 11:27

answered Mar 27 '18 at 11:01

Atanu Mondal

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dateFromString returning nil

2 Answers2