How to determine if an NSDate is today?

Question

How to check if an NSDate belongs to today?

I used to check it using first 10 characters from [aDate description]. [[aDate descriptio

Answer 1

I would try to get today's date normalized to midnight and the second date, normalize to midnight then compare if it is the same NSDate.

From an Apple example here's how you normalize to midnight today's date, do the same for the second date and compare:

NSCalendar * gregorian = [[NSCalendar alloc]
                               initWithCalendarIdentifier:NSGregorianCalendar];
NSDateComponents * components =
    [gregorian components:
                 (NSYearCalendarUnit|NSMonthCalendarUnit|NSDayCalendarUnit)
                 fromDate:[NSDate date]];
NSDate * today = [gregorian dateFromComponents:components];

Answer 2

This could probably be reworked as an NSDate category, but i used:

// Seconds per day (24h * 60m * 60s)
#define kSecondsPerDay 86400.0f

+ (BOOL) dateIsToday:(NSDate*)dateToCheck
{
    // Split today into components
    NSCalendar* gregorian = [[NSCalendar alloc] initWithCalendarIdentifier:NSGregorianCalendar];
    NSDateComponents* comps = [gregorian components:(NSYearCalendarUnit|NSMonthCalendarUnit|NSDayCalendarUnit|NSHourCalendarUnit|NSMinuteCalendarUnit|NSSecondCalendarUnit) 
                                        fromDate:[NSDate date]];

    // Set to this morning 00:00:00
    [comps setHour:0];
    [comps setMinute:0];
    [comps setSecond:0];
    NSDate* theMidnightHour = [gregorian dateFromComponents:comps];
    [gregorian release];

    // Get time difference (in seconds) between date and then
    NSTimeInterval diff = [dateToCheck timeIntervalSinceDate:theMidnightHour];
    return ( diff>=0.0f && diff<kSecondsPerDay );
}

(However, comparing the two date strings as in the original question almost feels 'cleaner'..)

Answer 3

NSDate *dateOne = yourDate;
NSDate *dateTwo = [NSDate date];  

switch ([dateOne compare:dateTwo])
{  
    case NSOrderedAscending:  
        NSLog(@”NSOrderedAscending”);  
        break;  

    case NSOrderedSame: 
        NSLog(@”NSOrderedSame”);  
        break;

    case NSOrderedDescending:  
        NSLog(@”NSOrderedDescending”);  
        break;  
}  

Answer 4

Swift Extension based on the best answers:

extension NSDate {
    func isToday() -> Bool {
        let cal = NSCalendar.currentCalendar()
        if cal.respondsToSelector("isDateInToday:") {
            return cal.isDateInToday(self)
        }
        var components = cal.components((.CalendarUnitEra | .CalendarUnitYear | .CalendarUnitMonth | .CalendarUnitDay), fromDate:NSDate())
        let today = cal.dateFromComponents(components)!

        components = cal.components((.CalendarUnitEra | .CalendarUnitYear | .CalendarUnitMonth | .CalendarUnitDay), fromDate:self);
        let otherDate = cal.dateFromComponents(components)!
        return today.isEqualToDate(otherDate)
    }
}

Answer 5

You could also check the time interval between the date you have, and the current date:

[myDate timeIntervalSinceNow]

This will give you the time interval, in seconds, between myDate and the current date/time.

Link.

Edit: Note to everyone: I'm well aware that [myDate timeIntervalSinceNow] does not unambiguously determine whether myDate is today.

I am leaving this answer as is so that if someone is looking for something similar and [myDate timeIntervalSinceNow] is useful, they may find it here.

Answer 6

Here's my 2 cent answer building on the accepted answer but supporting the newer API as well. Note: I use the Gregorian calendar as most time stamps are GMT but change yours as you see fit

func isDateToday(date: NSDate) -> Bool {
    let calendar = NSCalendar(calendarIdentifier: NSCalendarIdentifierGregorian)!
    if calendar.respondsToSelector("isDateInToday:") {
        return calendar.isDateInToday(date)
    }
    let dateComponents = NSCalendarUnit.CalendarUnitYear | NSCalendarUnit.CalendarUnitMonth | NSCalendarUnit.CalendarUnitDay
    let today = calendar.dateFromComponents(calendar.components(dateComponents, fromDate: NSDate()))!
    let dateToCompare = calendar.dateFromComponents(calendar.components(dateComponents, fromDate: date))!

    return dateToCompare == today
}