Convert NSString of a date to an NSDate

Question

This might be a silly question, but I can\'t seem to find the answer on here or in the documentation.

I want to convert an NSString such as @\"9/22/2010 3:45 PM\" t

Answer 1

NSDateFormatter *dateFormat = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormat setDateFormat:@"MM/dd/yyyy h:mm a"];
NSDate *date = [dateFormat dateFromString:dateStr];
[dateFormat release];

there is no problem in 2 digit day or 2 digit month.

This must help you.

Answer 2

I was having the same problem, not sure why NSDateFormatter isn't working for me (iOS5 - Xcode 4.3.2) but this worked out for me:

NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc]init];
[dateFormatter setLocale:[[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"en_US_POSIX"]];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"dd-MM-yyyy"];
NSString *dateString = @"05-06-2012";
NSDate *date;
NSError *error = nil; 
if (![dateFormatter getObjectValue:&date forString:dateString range:nil error:&error]) {
    NSLog(@"Date '%@' could not be parsed: %@", dateString, error);
}
[dateFormatter release];

Answer 3

You can parse an NSString into an NSDate using the NSDateFormatter class. See the documentation for more info:

Instances of NSDateFormatter create string representations of NSDate (and NSCalendarDate) objects, and convert textual representations of dates and times into NSDate objects.