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; }];