How to get the date without Time from NSDate?

Question

I want to get the date from NSDate and do not need time. Example:

NSDate* today = [NSDate date];  // want to give 20-06-2012 only

I want to get the date for today without showing the time and use it in NSDate variable or string variable.

Answer 1

In case someone else looks for this. I used the following:

NSDateComponents *components = [[NSCalendar currentCalendar] 
             components:NSYearCalendarUnit|NSMonthCalendarUnit|NSDayCalendarUnit 
              fromDate:[NSDate date]];
NSDate *startDate = [[NSCalendar currentCalendar] 
             dateFromComponents:components];

Answer 2

In terms of performance this approach may be better than using NSDateFormatter or NSCalendar.

Swift 3, 4, 5

let timeInterval = floor(Date().timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate / 86400) * 86400
let newDate = Date(timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate: timeInterval)

Swift 2

let timeInterval = floor(NSDate().timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate / 86400) * 86400
let newDate = NSDate(timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate: timeInterval)

You can also take into account time zone (this function is part of NSDate extension):

Swift 3, 4, 5

extension Date {

    func dateWithoutTime() -> Date {
        let timeZone = TimeZone.current
        let timeIntervalWithTimeZone = self.timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate + Double(timeZone.secondsFromGMT())
        let timeInterval = floor(timeIntervalWithTimeZone / 86400) * 86400
        return Date(timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate: timeInterval)
    }

}

Swift 2

extension NSDate {

    func dateWithoutTime() -> NSDate {
        let timeZone = NSTimeZone.localTimeZone()
        let timeIntervalWithTimeZone = self.timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate + Double(timeZone.secondsFromGMT)
        let timeInterval = floor(timeIntervalWithTimeZone / 86400) * 86400
        return NSDate(timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate: timeInterval)
    }

}

Answer 3

Use This method

- (NSString *)curentDateStringFromDate:(NSDate *)dateTimeInLine withFormat:(NSString *)dateFormat {
    NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc]init];

    [formatter setDateFormat:dateFormat];

    NSString *convertedString = [formatter stringFromDate:dateTimeInLine];

    return convertedString;
}

Use it Like Below

NSString *dateString = [self curentDateStringFromDate:[NSDate date] withFormat:@"dd-MM-yyyy"];

Answer 4

I implemented a Swift extension if anyone is interested. This will give you the current date (in your timezone) at 00:00:00 UTC, which I think is the meaning of current date without time.

I think it's better than @Murlakatam's answer because it doesn't involve messing with the raw timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate which is why we use date objects in the first place.

extension NSDate
{
    // Calendar objects are expensive to create to it's better to create and reuse only one.
    private static var cachedNoTimeZoneCalendar: NSCalendar = {
        let calendar = NSCalendar.currentCalendar()
        calendar.timeZone = NSTimeZone(forSecondsFromGMT: 0)
        return calendar
    }()

    func dateWithoutTime() -> NSDate?
    {
        let dateComponents = NSCalendar.currentCalendar().components([.Year, .Month, .Day], fromDate: self)
        return NSDate.cachedNoTimeZoneCalendar.dateFromComponents(dateComponents)
    }
}