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

My solution is calculate how much days passed since 1970 by division and compare the integer part

#define kOneDay (60*60*24)
- (BOOL)isToday {
  NSInteger offset = [[NSTimeZone defaultTimeZone] secondsFromGMT];

  NSInteger days =[self timeIntervalSince1970] + offset;
  NSInteger currentDays = [[NSDate date] timeIntervalSince1970] + offset;
  return (days / kOneDay == currentDays / kOneDay);
}

Answer 2

for iOS7 and earlier:

//this is now => need that for the current date
NSDate * now = [NSDate date];

NSCalendar *calendar = [[NSCalendar alloc] initWithCalendarIdentifier:NSGregorianCalendar];
[calendar setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone systemTimeZone]];

NSDateComponents * components = [calendar components:( NSYearCalendarUnit|    NSMonthCalendarUnit | NSDayCalendarUnit | NSHourCalendarUnit | NSMinuteCalendarUnit | NSSecondCalendarUnit) fromDate: now];

[components setMinute:0];
[components setHour:0];
[components setSecond:0];

//this is Today's Midnight
NSDate *todaysMidnight = [calendar dateFromComponents: components];



//now timeIntervals since Midnight => in seconds
NSTimeInterval todayTimeInterval = [now timeIntervalSinceDate: todaysMidnight];

//now timeIntervals since OtherDate => in seconds
NSTimeInterval otherDateTimeInterval = [now timeIntervalSinceDate: otherDate];

if(otherDateTimeInterval > todayTimeInterval) //otherDate is not in today
{
    if((otherDateTimeInterval - todayTimeInterval) <= 86400) //86400 == a day total seconds
    {
        @"yesterday";
    }
    else
    {
        @"earlier";
    }
}
else
{
    @"today";
}


now = nil;
calendar = nil;
components = nil;
todaysMidnight = nil;

NSLog("Thank you :-)");

Answer 3

No need to juggle with components, eras and stuff.

NSCalendar provides an method to get the beginning of a certain time unit for an existing date.

This code will get the begin of today and another date and compare that. If it evaluates to NSOrderedSame, both dates are during the same day — so today.

NSDate *today = nil;
NSDate *beginningOfOtherDate = nil;

NSDate *now = [NSDate date];
[[NSCalendar currentCalendar] rangeOfUnit:NSDayCalendarUnit startDate:&today interval:NULL forDate:now];
[[NSCalendar currentCalendar] rangeOfUnit:NSDayCalendarUnit startDate:&beginningOfOtherDate interval:NULL forDate:beginningOfOtherDate];

if([today compare:beginningOfOtherDate] == NSOrderedSame) {
    //otherDate is a date in the current day
}

Answer 4

There is an easier way than many of the above answers!

NSDate *date = ... // The date you wish to test
NSCalendar *calendar = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];

if([calendar isDateInToday:date]) {
    //do stuff
}

Answer 5

Working Swift 3 & 4 extension of the suggestion by Catfish_Man:

extension Date {

    func isToday() -> Bool {
        return Calendar.current.isDateInToday(self)
    }

}

Answer 6

If you have a lot of these date comparisons, then the calls to calendar:components:fromDate start to take up a lot of time. According to some profiling I have done, they seem to be quite expensive.

Say you are trying to determine which from some array of dates, say NSArray *datesToCompare, are the same day as some given day, say NSDate *baseDate, then you can use something like the following (partly adapted from an answer above):

NSDate *baseDate = [NSDate date];

NSArray *datesToCompare = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:[NSDate date], 
                           [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:100],
                           [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:1000],
                           [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:-10000],
                           [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:100000],
                           [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:1000000],
                           [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:50],
                           nil];

// determine the NSDate for midnight of the base date:
NSCalendar* calendar = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];
NSDateComponents* comps = [calendar components:(NSYearCalendarUnit|NSMonthCalendarUnit|NSDayCalendarUnit) 
                                       fromDate:baseDate];
NSDate* theMidnightHour = [calendar dateFromComponents:comps];

// set up a localized date formatter so we can see the answers are right!
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterMediumStyle];
[dateFormatter setTimeStyle:NSDateFormatterMediumStyle];

// determine which dates in an array are on the same day as the base date:
for (NSDate *date in datesToCompare) {
    NSTimeInterval interval = [date timeIntervalSinceDate:theMidnightHour];
    if (interval >= 0 && interval < 60*60*24) {
        NSLog(@"%@ is on the same day as %@", [dateFormatter stringFromDate:date], [dateFormatter stringFromDate:baseDate]);
    }
    else {
        NSLog(@"%@ is NOT on the same day as %@", [dateFormatter stringFromDate:date], [dateFormatter stringFromDate:baseDate]);
    }
}

Output:

Nov 23, 2011 1:32:00 PM is on the same day as Nov 23, 2011 1:32:00 PM
Nov 23, 2011 1:33:40 PM is on the same day as Nov 23, 2011 1:32:00 PM
Nov 23, 2011 1:48:40 PM is on the same day as Nov 23, 2011 1:32:00 PM
Nov 23, 2011 10:45:20 AM is on the same day as Nov 23, 2011 1:32:00 PM
Nov 24, 2011 5:18:40 PM is NOT on the same day as Nov 23, 2011 1:32:00 PM
Dec 5, 2011 3:18:40 AM is NOT on the same day as Nov 23, 2011 1:32:00 PM
Nov 23, 2011 1:32:50 PM is on the same day as Nov 23, 2011 1:32:00 PM