Number of days between two NSDates [duplicate]

Question

Here's an implementation I used to determine the number of calendar days between two dates:

+ (NSInteger)daysBetweenDate:(NSDate*)fromDateTime andDate:(NSDate*)toDateTime
{
    NSDate *fromDate;
    NSDate *toDate;

    NSCalendar *calendar = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];

    [calendar rangeOfUnit:NSCalendarUnitDay startDate:&fromDate
        interval:NULL forDate:fromDateTime];
    [calendar rangeOfUnit:NSCalendarUnitDay startDate:&toDate
        interval:NULL forDate:toDateTime];

    NSDateComponents *difference = [calendar components:NSCalendarUnitDay
        fromDate:fromDate toDate:toDate options:0];

    return [difference day];
}

EDIT:

Fantastic solution above, here's Swift version below as an extension on NSDate:

extension NSDate {
  func numberOfDaysUntilDateTime(toDateTime: NSDate, inTimeZone timeZone: NSTimeZone? = nil) -> Int {
    let calendar = NSCalendar.currentCalendar()
    if let timeZone = timeZone {
      calendar.timeZone = timeZone
    }

    var fromDate: NSDate?, toDate: NSDate?

    calendar.rangeOfUnit(.Day, startDate: &fromDate, interval: nil, forDate: self)
    calendar.rangeOfUnit(.Day, startDate: &toDate, interval: nil, forDate: toDateTime)

    let difference = calendar.components(.Day, fromDate: fromDate!, toDate: toDate!, options: [])
    return difference.day
  }
}

A bit of force unwrapping going on which you may want to remove depending on your use case.

The above solution also works for time zones other than the current time zone, perfect for an app that shows information about places all around the world.

Here's the best solution I've found. Seems to utilize the Apple approved method for determining any amount of units between NSDates.

- (NSInteger)daysBetween:(NSDate *)dt1 and:(NSDate *)dt2
{
    NSUInteger unitFlags = NSCalendarUnitDay;
    NSCalendar *calendar = [[NSCalendar alloc] initWithCalendarIdentifier:NSCalendarIdentifierGregorian];
    NSDateComponents *components = [calendar components:unitFlags fromDate:dt1 toDate:dt2 options:0];
    return [components day] + 1;
}

E.g. if you want months as well, then you could include 'NSMonthCalendarUnit' as a unitFlag.

To credit the original blogger, I found this info here (although there was a slight mistake that I've fixed above): http://cocoamatic.blogspot.com/2010/09/nsdate-number-of-days-between-two-dates.html?showComment=1306198273659#c6501446329564880344

Swift 3.0 Update

extension Date {

    func differenceInDaysWithDate(date: Date) -> Int {
        let calendar = Calendar.current

        let date1 = calendar.startOfDay(for: self)
        let date2 = calendar.startOfDay(for: date)

        let components = calendar.dateComponents([.day], from: date1, to: date2)
        return components.day ?? 0
    }
}

Swift 2.0 Update

extension NSDate {

    func differenceInDaysWithDate(date: NSDate) -> Int {
        let calendar: NSCalendar = NSCalendar.currentCalendar()

        let date1 = calendar.startOfDayForDate(self)
        let date2 = calendar.startOfDayForDate(date)

        let components = calendar.components(.Day, fromDate: date1, toDate: date2, options: [])
        return components.day
    }

}

Original Solution

Another solution in Swift.

If your purpose is to get the exact day number between two dates, you can work around this issue like this:

// Assuming that firstDate and secondDate are defined
// ...

var calendar: NSCalendar = NSCalendar.currentCalendar()

// Replace the hour (time) of both dates with 00:00
let date1 = calendar.startOfDayForDate(firstDate)
let date2 = calendar.startOfDayForDate(secondDate)

let flags = NSCalendarUnit.DayCalendarUnit
let components = calendar.components(flags, fromDate: date1, toDate: date2, options: nil)

components.day  // This will return the number of day(s) between dates

I use this as category method for NSDate class

// returns number of days (absolute value) from another date (as number of midnights beween these dates)
- (int)daysFromDate:(NSDate *)pDate {
    NSCalendar *calendar = [[NSCalendar alloc] initWithCalendarIdentifier:NSCalendarIdentifierGregorian];
    NSInteger startDay=[calendar ordinalityOfUnit:NSCalendarUnitDay
                                           inUnit:NSCalendarUnitEra
                                          forDate:[NSDate date]];
    NSInteger endDay=[calendar ordinalityOfUnit:NSCalendarUnitDay
                                         inUnit:NSCalendarUnitEra
                                        forDate:pDate];
    return abs(endDay-startDay);
}

I needed the number of days between two dates including the beginning day. e.g. days between 14-2-2012 and 16-2-2012 would produce a result of 3.

+ (NSInteger)daysBetween:(NSDate *)dt1 and:(NSDate *)dt2 {
        NSUInteger unitFlags = NSDayCalendarUnit;
        NSCalendar* calendar = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];
        NSDateComponents *components = [calendar components:unitFlags fromDate:dt1 toDate:dt2 options:0];
        NSInteger daysBetween = abs([components day]);
    return daysBetween+1;
}

Note that it doesn't matter in which order you provide the dates. It will always return a positive number.

NSDate *lastDate = [NSDate date];
NSDate *todaysDate = [NSDate date];
NSTimeInterval lastDiff = [lastDate timeIntervalSinceNow];
NSTimeInterval todaysDiff = [todaysDate timeIntervalSinceNow];
NSTimeInterval dateDiff = lastDiff - todaysDiff;

dateDiff will then be the number of second between the two dates. Just divide by the number of seconds in a day.

@Brian

Brian's answer while good, only calculates difference in days in terms of 24h chunks, but not calendar day differences. For example 23:59 on Dec 24th is only 1 minute away from Christmas Day, for the purpose of many application that is considered one day still. Brian's daysBetween function would return 0.

Borrowing from Brian's original implementation and beginning/end of day, I use the following in my program: (NSDate beginning of day and end of day)

- (NSDate *)beginningOfDay:(NSDate *)date
{
    NSCalendar *cal = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];
    NSDateComponents *components = [cal components:( NSDayCalendarUnit | NSMonthCalendarUnit | NSYearCalendarUnit | NSHourCalendarUnit | NSMinuteCalendarUnit | NSSecondCalendarUnit ) fromDate:date];
    [components setHour:0];
    [components setMinute:0];
    [components setSecond:0];
    return [cal dateFromComponents:components];
}

- (NSDate *)endOfDay:(NSDate *)date
{
    NSCalendar *cal = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];
    NSDateComponents *components = [cal components:( NSDayCalendarUnit | NSMonthCalendarUnit | NSYearCalendarUnit | NSHourCalendarUnit | NSMinuteCalendarUnit | NSSecondCalendarUnit ) fromDate:date];
    [components setHour:23];
    [components setMinute:59];
    [components setSecond:59];
    return [cal dateFromComponents:components];
}

- (int)daysBetween:(NSDate *)date1 and:(NSDate *)date2 {
    NSDate *beginningOfDate1 = [self beginningOfDay:date1];
    NSDate *endOfDate1 = [self endOfDay:date1];
    NSCalendar *calendar = [[NSCalendar alloc] initWithCalendarIdentifier:NSGregorianCalendar];
    NSDateComponents *beginningDayDiff = [calendar components:NSDayCalendarUnit fromDate:beginningOfDate1 toDate:date2 options:0];
    NSDateComponents *endDayDiff = [calendar components:NSDayCalendarUnit fromDate:endOfDate1 toDate:date2 options:0];
    if (beginningDayDiff.day > 0)
        return beginningDayDiff.day;
    else if (endDayDiff.day < 0)
        return endDayDiff.day;
    else {
        return 0;
    }
}