How can I get an NSDate object for today at midnight?

Question

What is the most efficient way to obtain an NSDate object that represents midnight of the current day?

Richard Venable · Answer 1 · 2015-07-29T16:11:01.693

103

New API in iOS 8

iOS 8 includes a new method on NSCalendar called startOfDayForDate, which is really easy to use:

let startOfToday = NSCalendar.currentCalendar().startOfDayForDate(NSDate())

Apple's description:

This API returns the first moment date of a given date. Pass in [NSDate date], for example, if you want the start of "today". If there were two midnights, it returns the first. If there was none, it returns the first moment that did exist.

Update, regarding time zones:

Since startOfDayForDate is a method on NSCalendar, it uses the NSCalendar's time zone. So if I wanted to see what time it was in New York, when today began in Los Angeles, I could do this:

let losAngelesCalendar = NSCalendar.currentCalendar().copy() as! NSCalendar
losAngelesCalendar.timeZone = NSTimeZone(name: "America/Los_Angeles")!

let dateTodayBeganInLosAngeles = losAngelesCalendar.startOfDayForDate(NSDate())
dateTodayBeganInLosAngeles.timeIntervalSince1970

let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateStyle = .MediumStyle
dateFormatter.timeStyle = .ShortStyle
dateFormatter.timeZone = NSTimeZone(name: "America/New_York")!
let timeInNewYorkWhenTodayBeganInLosAngeles = dateFormatter.stringFromDate(dateTodayBeganInLosAngeles)
print(timeInNewYorkWhenTodayBeganInLosAngeles) // prints "Jul 29, 2015, 3:00 AM"

edited Jul 29 '15 at 16:11

answered Apr 29 '15 at 17:32

Richard Venable

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Does this handle timezones? – ftvs Jul 29 '15 at 07:32
1

@ftvs, yes, since startOfDayForDate() is a method on NSCalendar, you can set the timeZone on your NSCalendar instance. The example code I included above uses NSCalender.currentCalendar() which uses the user's current time zone. You can create your own NSCalendar and set the time zone to different values. – Richard Venable Jul 29 '15 at 15:57
2

@ftvs, I updated my answer with more info about time zones. – Richard Venable Jul 29 '15 at 16:11
4

This should be the accepted answer, especially for iOS 8 and later. – ndmeiri Aug 18 '15 at 19:18
1

@ndmeri why should this be the accepted answer? It is an answer for using Swift yes but does not provide an answer for Objective C. – wuf810 Nov 24 '15 at 17:11
@wuf810, the startOfDayForDate: method is also available in ObjC. – Richard Venable Nov 30 '15 at 19:11
Renamed to `public func startOfDay(for date: Date) -> Date` in newer versions of swift – David Dec 07 '20 at 20:45

Christian Schnorr · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-19T14:14:51.337

67

Try this:

NSDate *const date = NSDate.date;
NSCalendar *const calendar = NSCalendar.currentCalendar;
NSCalendarUnit const preservedComponents = (NSCalendarUnitYear | NSCalendarUnitMonth | NSCalendarUnitDay);
NSDateComponents *const components = [calendar components:preservedComponents fromDate:date];
NSDate *const normalizedDate = [calendar dateFromComponents:components];

edited May 19 '15 at 14:14

answered Jan 27 '12 at 21:50

Christian Schnorr

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Doens't work for me. For my current date `2013-08-22 10:05:45 +0000` is returns `2013-08-21 22:00:00 +0000`. Then i have used `NSDateComponents` and have send `setHour`, `setMinute` and `setHour` with 0 and still no good. – Martin Berger Aug 22 '13 at 10:14
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The date string you posted here was apparently logged in the simulator. This automatically adapts to your timezone, the actual date stored is at midnight though. – Christian Schnorr Aug 22 '13 at 10:49
1

How do you get your string? – Christian Schnorr Aug 22 '13 at 11:49
`NSLog(@"%@", date);` where `date` is NSDate object. – Martin Berger Aug 22 '13 at 12:11
I get correct time reduced by two hours. That's what i noticed. But i have set time zone with `[calendar setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone systemTimeZone]];`. – Martin Berger Aug 22 '13 at 12:11
2

That was my point. `NSLog(@"%@", date);` is sending it a `-description` message which is basically the same as `NSLog`ging it into the console. If you actually ask the date for its `NSHourCalendarUnit` you will see that it is a midnight date. – Christian Schnorr Aug 22 '13 at 12:39
Solution: [SO link](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7325837/nscalendar-datefromcomponents-gmt-timezone-instead-of-systemtimezone) – Martin Berger Aug 22 '13 at 12:59
4

Isn't that exactly what I told you? – Christian Schnorr Aug 22 '13 at 13:03
3

Looks like since iOS 8, the components are now NSCalendarUnitYear, NSCalendarUnitMonth, and NSCalendarUnitDay in case anyone gets a deprecation warning. – Shalmezad May 18 '15 at 17:19

score 12 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 15 '18 at 20:25

NSCalendar *cal = [[[NSCalendar alloc] initWithCalendarIdentifier:NSGregorianCalendar] autorelease]; 
[cal setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone systemTimeZone]];  

 NSDateComponents * comp = [cal components:( NSYearCalendarUnit| NSMonthCalendarUnit | NSDayCalendarUnit | NSHourCalendarUnit | NSMinuteCalendarUnit) fromDate:[NSDate date]]; 

 [comp setMinute:0]; 
 [comp setHour:0];
 [comp setSecond:0]; 

 NSDate *startOfToday = [cal dateFromComponents:comp];

If you mean midnight as 23:59 then set component's hour as 23 and minutes as 59.

score 9 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 13 '18 at 18:49

Swift:

let cal = NSCalendar.currentCalendar()

//tip:NSCalendarUnit can be omitted, but with the presence of it, you can take advantage of Xcode's auto-completion
var comps = cal.components(NSCalendarUnit.YearCalendarUnit | .MonthCalendarUnit | .DayCalendarUnit | .HourCalendarUnit | .MinuteCalendarUnit | .SecondCalendarUnit, fromDate: NSDate()) 
comps.hour = 0
comps.minute = 0
comps.second = 0

let midnightOfToday = cal.dateFromComponents(comps)!

Swift 2.2:

let cal = NSCalendar.currentCalendar()

let comps = cal.components([.Year, .Month, .Day, .Hour, .Minute, .Second], fromDate: NSDate())
comps.hour = 0
comps.minute = 0
comps.second = 0

let midnightOfToday = cal.dateFromComponents(comps)!

Objective-C:

NSCalendar *cal = [NSCalendar currentCalendar]; 

NSDateComponents *comps = [cal components:(NSCalendarUnitYear | NSCalendarUnitMonth | NSCalendarUnitDay | NSCalendarUnitHour | NSCalendarUnitMinute) fromDate:[NSDate date]];    
[comps setHour:0]; 
[comps setMinute:0]; 
[comps setSecond:0];

NSDate *midnightOfToday = [cal dateFromComponents:comps];

score 8 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 27 '12 at 22:25

You could use the following method to get the midnight value for an NSDate.

- (NSDate *)dateAtBeginningOfDayForDate:(NSDate *)inputDate
{
    // Use the user's current calendar and time zone
    NSCalendar *calendar = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];
    NSTimeZone *timeZone = [NSTimeZone systemTimeZone];
    [calendar setTimeZone:timeZone];

    // Selectively convert the date components (year, month, day) of the input date
    NSDateComponents *dateComps = [calendar components:NSYearCalendarUnit | NSMonthCalendarUnit | NSDayCalendarUnit fromDate:inputDate];

    // Set the time components manually
    [dateComps setHour:0];
    [dateComps setMinute:0];
    [dateComps setSecond:0];

    // Convert back       
    NSDate *beginningOfDay = [calendar dateFromComponents:dateComps];
    return beginningOfDay;
}

Thkis is taken from here website.

joan · Answer 6 · 2019-02-06T15:05:20.450

5

From iOS8, you can use startDayForDate.

So, in order to get the start of today (Objective -C):

NSDate * midnight;
 midnight = [[NSCalendar currentCalendar] startOfDayForDate: [NSDate date]];

edited Feb 06 '19 at 15:05

answered Sep 21 '17 at 09:22

joan

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 23 '15 at 03:17

1

NSDate *now = [NSDate date];
NSDate *beginningOfToday = nil;
[[NSCalendar currentCalendar] rangeOfUnit:NSDayCalendarUnit startDate:&beginningOfToday interval:NULL forDate:now];

answered Apr 23 '15 at 03:17

Qiulang

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score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 27 '12 at 21:40

try this:

NSCalendar *gregorian = [[NSCalendar alloc] initWithCalendarIdentifier:NSGregorianCalendar];
NSDate *now = [NSDate date];
NSDateComponents *components = [gregorian components:NSDayCalendarUnit | NSMonthCalendarUnit | NSYearCalendarUnit fromDate:now];
NSDateFormatter* df = [[NSDateFormatter alloc]init];
[df setDateFormat:@"MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS"];
NSLog(@"%@",[df stringFromDate:[gregorian dateFromComponents:components]]);

score 0 · Answer 9 · edited Sep 09 '16 at 07:36

0

    let calendar = NSCalendar.currentCalendar()
    let unitFlags: NSCalendarUnit = [.Year, .Month, .Day, .Minute, .Second]
    let components = calendar.components(unitFlags , fromDate: NSDate())

    components.hour = 0
    components.minute = 0
    components.second = 0

    //Gives Midnight time of today
    let midnightOfToday = calendar.dateFromComponents(components)!

edited Sep 09 '16 at 07:36

odemolliens

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answered Jun 27 '15 at 14:51

Mohammad Yaqoob

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include some explanation to your answer, why OP used this – HaveNoDisplayName Jun 27 '15 at 15:19

Thecafremo · Answer 10 · 2016-04-21T18:37:59.510

0

You could use NSCalendar's dateBySettingHour:minute:second:ofDate:options:

So it would be as easy as doing:

NSCalendar *calendar = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];
calendar.timeZone = [NSTimeZone timeZoneWithName:@"UTC"];

NSDate *midnight = [calendar dateBySettingHour:0 minute:0 second:0 ofDate:[NSDate date] options:0];

edited Apr 21 '16 at 18:37

answered Apr 21 '16 at 17:16

Thecafremo

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How can I get an NSDate object for today at midnight?

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