How can I Convert a NSString to a valid NSDate (iOS)

Question

I'm passing a string from javascript to Objective-C in the form of "2012-02-17 14:21:30 +0000". My code is as follows:

NSString *firingDate = [_parameters objectForKey:@"fire"];
NSDate *notificationDate = [NSDate dateWithString:firingDate];

The issue is that I ended up reading the OS X reference instead of the iOS docs (doh!) so this throws a warning as dateWithString isn't present in iOS. In theory I suppose that this shouldn't work at all but it does, albeit with that warning.

What is the Correct way to convert the string to a NSDate?

possible duplicate of [NSString to NSDate](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1353081/nsstring-to-nsdate) — DarkDust, Feb 17 '12 at 15:02

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 17 '12 at 14:59

3

The correct way is to use NSDateFormatter as a factory to create dates from strings (and vice versa).

answered Feb 17 '12 at 14:59

fzwo

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score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 19 '12 at 10:34

2

Try this:

NSString *firingDate = [_parameters objectForKey:@"fire"];
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
NSDate *notificationDate = [dateFormatter dateFromString:firingDate];

Check out the reference for parsing dates from multiple regions.

Don't forget to release your formatter when finished.

edited Feb 19 '12 at 10:34

Costique

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answered Feb 17 '12 at 15:12

Destron

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sch · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-24T23:49:03.003

2

Try:

NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
formatter.dateFormat = @"YYYY-MM-dd HH:mm:ss Z";
NSDate *notificationDate = [formatter dateFromString:firingDate];

edited Mar 24 '12 at 23:49

answered Feb 17 '12 at 15:16

sch

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I think the date format should be "YYYY-MM-dd HH:mm:ss Z" (thats what worked for me) – AlBeebe Mar 24 '12 at 23:42

How can I Convert a NSString to a valid NSDate (iOS)

3 Answers3