How do I get the day of the week with Foundation?

Question

How do I get the day of the week as a string?

Answer 1

NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[[NSDateFormatter alloc] init] autorelease];  
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"EEEE"];
NSLog(@"%@", [dateFormatter stringFromDate:[NSDate date]]);

outputs current day of week as a string in locale dependent on current regional settings.

To get just a week day number you must use NSCalendar class:

NSCalendar *gregorian = [[[NSCalendar alloc] initWithCalendarIdentifier:NSGregorianCalendar] autorelease];
NSDateComponents *comps = [gregorian components:NSWeekdayCalendarUnit fromDate:[NSDate date]];
int weekday = [comps weekday];

Answer 2

Just use these three lines:

CFAbsoluteTime at = CFAbsoluteTimeGetCurrent();
CFTimeZoneRef tz = CFTimeZoneCopySystem();
SInt32 WeekdayNumber = CFAbsoluteTimeGetDayOfWeek(at, tz);

Answer 3

Many of the answers here are deprecated. This works as of iOS 8.4 and gives you the day of the week as a string and as a number.

NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"EEEE"];
NSLog(@"The day of the week: %@", [dateFormatter stringFromDate:[NSDate date]]);

NSCalendar *gregorian = [[NSCalendar alloc] initWithCalendarIdentifier:NSCalendarIdentifierGregorian];
NSDateComponents *comps = [gregorian components:NSCalendarUnitWeekday fromDate:[NSDate date]];
int weekday = [comps weekday];
NSLog(@"The week day number: %d", weekday);

Answer 4

Here's how you do it in Swift 3, and get a localised day name…

let dayNumber = Calendar.current.component(.weekday, from: Date()) // 1 - 7
let dayName = DateFormatter().weekdaySymbols[dayNumber - 1]