How to format Facebook/Twitter dates (from the JSON feed) in Objective-C

Question

For my iPhone application...

I am looking for a way to format the Facebook created_time JSON property value.

\"created_time\": \"2010-12-0

Answer 1

@binnyb's answer is perfect for Objective-C; for those looking to do the same thing using Swift, here's a translated version of his answer:

For the Twitter Date:

    var df = NSDateFormatter()
    //Wed Dec 01 17:08:03 +0000 2010
    df.dateFormat = "eee MMM dd HH:mm:ss ZZZZ yyyy"
    var date = df.dateFromString(twitterDateString)
    df.dateFormat = "eee MMM dd yyyy"
    var dateStr = df.stringFromDate(date!)

For the Facebook Date:

    var df = NSDateFormatter()
    //Wed Dec 01 17:08:03 +0000 2010
    df.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZZZZ"
    var date = df.dateFromString(facebookDateString)
    df.dateFormat = "eee MMM dd yyyy"
    var dateStr = df.stringFromDate(date!)

where twitterDateString and facebookDateString are the date strings obtained from their respective APIs.

Answer 2

Just to complicate things a bit, the JSON response of the Twitter Search API currently returns a date format (inherited from Summize) which is something like:

@"Sun, 05 Jun 2011 12:25:47 +0000"

To convert this to NSDate, use:

NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[[NSDateFormatter alloc] init] autorelease];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"eee, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss ZZZZ"];
NSDate *date = [dateFormatter dateFromString:@"Sun, 05 Jun 2011 12:25:47 +0000"];

Answer 3

I give you the solution to parse Facebook api date time:

parser = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[parser setTimeStyle:NSDateFormatterFullStyle];
[parser setFormatterBehavior:NSDateFormatterBehavior10_4];
[parser setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssz"];

Enjoy !

eBuildy, french Web Agency

Answer 4

here is what i have working for Twitter:

NSDateFormatter *df = [[[NSDateFormatter alloc] init] autorelease];
    //Wed Dec 01 17:08:03 +0000 2010
    [df setDateFormat:@"eee MMM dd HH:mm:ss ZZZZ yyyy"];
    NSDate *date = [df dateFromString:[[tweets objectAtIndex: storyIndex] objectForKey: TWITTER_CREATED_AT_JSON_KEY]];
    [df setDateFormat:@"eee MMM dd yyyy"];
    NSString *dateStr = [df stringFromDate:date];

where tweets is an NSMutableArray filled with NSDictionary objects, storyIndex being the row int value (in the tableview), and TWITTER_CREATED_AT_JSON_KEY being a constant NSString with value created_at. use the dateStr wherever you wish to display the date

and Facebook:

NSDateFormatter *df = [[[NSDateFormatter alloc] init] autorelease];
    //2010-12-01T21:35:43+0000  
    [df setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZZZZ"];
    NSDate *date = [df dateFromString:[[facebook objectForKey:FACEBOOK_POST_CREATED_TIME_JSON_KEY] stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"T" withString:@""]];
    [df setDateFormat:@"eee MMM dd, yyyy hh:mm"];
    NSString *dateStr = [df stringFromDate:date];

Answer 5

NSString *yourInputFBdate = @"2010-12-02T20:12:06+0000";
NSString *fbDate = [yourInputFBdate stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"T" withString:@" "];
fbDate = [fbDate stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"+" withString:@" +"];
NSDate *date = [[NSDate alloc] initWithString:fbDate];

/// do something with date ...

[date release];

Answer 6

something similar to this should do the first one for you. i would double check against the docs, as i may have capitalised the wrong letters.

[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"YYYY-MM-ddThh:mm:ss z"];
NSDate *date=[NSDateFormatter dateFromString:twitterDate];