Comparing NSDates without time component

Question

In a swift playground, I have been using

NSDate.date() 

But, this always appears with the time element appended. For my app I need to ignor

Answer 1

For iOS7 support

let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd"
let date1String = dateFormatter.stringFromDate(date1)
let date2String = dateFormatter.stringFromDate(date2)
if date1String == date2String {
    println("Equal date")
}

Answer 2

You can compare two dates using it's description.

let date1 = NSDate()
let date2 = NSDate(timeIntervalSinceNow: 120)
if date1.description == date2.description {
    print(true)
} else {
    print(false)   // false (I have added 2 seconds between them)
}

If you want set the time element of your dates to a different time you can do as follow:

extension NSDate {
    struct Calendar {
        static let gregorian = NSCalendar(calendarIdentifier: NSCalendarIdentifierGregorian)!
    }
    var day:    Int { return Calendar.gregorian.component(.Day,    fromDate: self)   }
    var month:  Int { return Calendar.gregorian.component(.Month,  fromDate: self)  }
    var year:   Int { return Calendar.gregorian.component(.Year,   fromDate: self)  }

    var noon: NSDate {
        return Calendar.gregorian.dateWithEra(1, year: year, month: month, day: day, hour: 12, minute: 0, second: 0, nanosecond: 0)!
    }
}

let date1 = NSDate()
let date2 = NSDate(timeIntervalSinceNow: 120)
print(date1.noon == date2.noon)   // true

or you can also do it using NSDateFormatter:

extension NSDate {
    struct Date {
        static let formatterYYYYMMDD: NSDateFormatter = {
            let formatter = NSDateFormatter()
            formatter.dateFormat = "yyyyMMdd"
            return formatter
        }()
    }
    var yearMonthDay: String {
        return Date.formatterYYYYMMDD.stringFromDate(self)
    }
    func isSameDayAs(date:NSDate) -> Bool {
        return yearMonthDay == date.yearMonthDay
    }
}

let date1 = NSDate()
let date2 = NSDate(timeIntervalSinceNow: 120)
print(date1.yearMonthDay == date2.yearMonthDay)   // true

print(date1.isSameDayAs(date2))    // true

Another option (iOS8+) is to use calendar method isDate(inSameDayAsDate:):

extension NSDate {
    struct Calendar {
        static let gregorian = NSCalendar(calendarIdentifier: NSCalendarIdentifierGregorian)!
    }
    func isInSameDayAs(date date: NSDate) -> Bool {
        return Calendar.gregorian.isDate(self, inSameDayAsDate: date)
    }
}
let date1 = NSDate()
let date2 = NSDate(timeIntervalSinceNow: 120)
if date1.isInSameDayAs(date: date2 ){
    print(true)   // true
} else {
    print(false)
}

Answer 3

I wrote a Swift 4 extension for comparing two dates:

import Foundation

extension Date {      
  func isSameDate(_ comparisonDate: Date) -> Bool {
    let order = Calendar.current.compare(self, to: comparisonDate, toGranularity: .day)
    return order == .orderedSame
  }

  func isBeforeDate(_ comparisonDate: Date) -> Bool {
    let order = Calendar.current.compare(self, to: comparisonDate, toGranularity: .day)
    return order == .orderedAscending
  }

  func isAfterDate(_ comparisonDate: Date) -> Bool {
    let order = Calendar.current.compare(self, to: comparisonDate, toGranularity: .day)
    return order == .orderedDescending
  }
}

Usage:

startDate.isSameDateAs(endDate) // returns a true or false

Answer 4

Swift iOS 8 and up When you need more than simply bigger or smaller date comparisons. For example is it the same day or the previous day,...

extension Date {
    func compareTo(date: Date, toGranularity: Calendar.Component ) -> ComparisonResult  {
        var cal = Calendar.current
        cal.timeZone = TimeZone(identifier: "Europe/Paris")!
        return cal.compare(self, to: date, toGranularity: toGranularity)
        }
    }

For examples how to use this in a filter see this answer:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/45746206/4946476

Answer 5

Swift 4

func compareDate(date1:Date, date2:Date) -> Bool {
    let order = Calendar.current.compare(date1, to: date2,toGranularity: .day)
    switch order {
    case .orderedSame:
        return true
    default:
        return false
    }
}