How can I convert string date to NSDate?

Question

I want to convert \"2014-07-15 06:55:14.198000+00:00\" this string date to NSDate in Swift.

Answer 1

import Foundation

let now : String = "2014-07-16 03:03:34 PDT"
var date : NSDate
var dateFormatter : NSDateFormatter

date = dateFormatter.dateFromString(now)

date // $R6: __NSDate = 2014-07-16 03:03:34 PDT

https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes/NSDateFormatter_Class/index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000447-SW32

Answer 2

Swift 3,4:

2 useful conversions:

string(from: Date) // to convert from Date to a String
date(from: String) // to convert from String to Date

Usage: 1.

let date = Date() //gives today's date
let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd.MM.yyyy"
let todaysDateInUKFormat = dateFormatter.string(from: date)

2.

 let someDateInString = "23.06.2017"
 var getDateFromString = dateFormatter.date(from: someDateInString)

Answer 3

FOR SWIFT 3.1

func convertDateStringToDate(longDate: String) -> String{

    /* INPUT: longDate = "2017-01-27T05:00:00.000Z"
     * OUTPUT: "1/26/17"
     * date_format_you_want_in_string from
     * http://userguide.icu-project.org/formatparse/datetime
     */

    let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
    dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ"
    let date = dateFormatter.date(from: longDate)

    if date != nil {

        let formatter = DateFormatter()
        formatter.dateStyle = .short
        let dateShort = formatter.string(from: date!)

        return dateShort

    } else {

        return longDate

    }
}

NOTE: THIS WILL RETURN THE ORIGINAL STRING IF ERROR

Answer 4

This work for me..

    import Foundation
    import UIKit

    //dateString = "01/07/2017"
    private func parseDate(_ dateStr: String) -> String {
            let simpleDateFormat = DateFormatter()
            simpleDateFormat.dateFormat = "dd/MM/yyyy" //format our date String
            let dateFormat = DateFormatter()
            dateFormat.dateFormat = "dd 'de' MMMM 'de' yyyy" //format return

            let date = simpleDateFormat.date(from: dateStr)
            return dateFormat.string(from: date!)
    }

Answer 5

Details

• Swift 4, Xcode 9.2
• Swift 5, Xcode 10.2 (10E125)

Solution

import Foundation

extension DateFormatter {

    convenience init (format: String) {
        self.init()
        dateFormat = format
        locale = Locale.current
    }
}

extension String {

    func toDate (dateFormatter: DateFormatter) -> Date? {
        return dateFormatter.date(from: self)
    }

    func toDateString (dateFormatter: DateFormatter, outputFormat: String) -> String? {
        guard let date = toDate(dateFormatter: dateFormatter) else { return nil }
        return DateFormatter(format: outputFormat).string(from: date)
    }
}

extension Date {

    func toString (dateFormatter: DateFormatter) -> String? {
        return dateFormatter.string(from: self)
    }
}

Usage

var dateString = "14.01.2017T14:54:00"
let dateFormatter = DateFormatter(format: "dd.MM.yyyy'T'HH:mm:ss")
let date = Date()

print("original String with date:               \(dateString)")
print("date String() to Date():                 \(dateString.toDate(dateFormatter: dateFormatter)!)")
print("date String() to formated date String(): \(dateString.toDateString(dateFormatter: dateFormatter, outputFormat: "dd MMMM")!)")
let dateFormatter2 = DateFormatter(format: "dd MMM HH:mm")
print("format Date():                           \(date.toString(dateFormatter: dateFormatter2)!)")

Result

More information

About date format

Answer 6

The code fragments on this QA page are "upside down"...

The first thing Apple mentions is that you cache your formatter...

Link to Apple doco stating exactly how to do this:

Cache Formatters for Efficiency Creating a date formatter is not a cheap operation. ...cache a single instance...

Use a global...

let df : DateFormatter = {
    let formatter = DateFormatter()
    formatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd"
    return formatter 
}()

Then simply use that formatter anywhere...

let s = df.string(from: someDate)

or

let d = df.date(from: someString)

Or use any of the other many, many convenient methods on DateFormatter.

It is that simple.

(If you write an extension on String, your code is completely "upside down" - you can't use any dateFormatter calls!)

Note that usually you will have a few of those globals .. such as "formatForClient" "formatForPubNub" "formatForDisplayOnInvoiceScreen" .. etc.