Converting NSString to NSDate (and back again)

ghz 1years ago ⋅ 8809 views

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

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);
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