Swift 3 - Comparing Date objects

Question

I\'m updating my app to Swift 3.0 syntax (I know it\'s still in beta but I want to be prepared as soon as it released).

Until the previous Beta of Xcode (Beta 5) I wa

Answer 1

Date is Comparable & Equatable (as of Swift 3)

This answer complements @Ankit Thakur's answer.

Since Swift 3 the Date struct (based on the underlying NSDate class) adopts the Comparable and Equatable protocols.

• Comparable requires that Date implement the operators: <, <=, >, >=.
• Equatable requires that Date implement the == operator.
• Equatable allows Date to use the default implementation of the != operator (which is the inverse of the Equatable == operator implementation).

The following sample code exercises these comparison operators and confirms which comparisons are true with print statements.

Comparison function

import Foundation

func describeComparison(date1: Date, date2: Date) -> String {

    var descriptionArray: [String] = []

    if date1 < date2 {
        descriptionArray.append("date1 < date2")
    }

    if date1 <= date2 {
        descriptionArray.append("date1 <= date2")
    }

    if date1 > date2 {
        descriptionArray.append("date1 > date2")
    }

    if date1 >= date2 {
        descriptionArray.append("date1 >= date2")
    }

    if date1 == date2 {
        descriptionArray.append("date1 == date2")
    }

    if date1 != date2 {
        descriptionArray.append("date1 != date2")
    }

    return descriptionArray.joined(separator: ",  ")
}

Sample Use

let now = Date()

describeComparison(date1: now, date2: now.addingTimeInterval(1))
// date1 < date2,  date1 <= date2,  date1 != date2

describeComparison(date1: now, date2: now.addingTimeInterval(-1))
// date1 > date2,  date1 >= date2,  date1 != date2

describeComparison(date1: now, date2: now)
// date1 <= date2,  date1 >= date2,  date1 == date2