iOS: Compare two NSDate-s without time portion

Question

I want to compare two dates: date1 and date2

2011-06-06 12:59:48.994 Project[419:707] firstDate:2011-06-06 10:59:21 +0000
2011-06-06 12:59:49.004 Project[419         


        

Answer 1

NSCalendar *calendar = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];
NSInteger comps = (NSCalendarUnitDay | NSCalendarUnitMonth | NSCalendarUnitYear);

NSDateComponents *date1Components = [calendar components:comps 
                                                fromDate: date1];
NSDateComponents *date2Components = [calendar components:comps 
                                                fromDate: date2];

date1 = [calendar dateFromComponents:date1Components];
date2 = [calendar dateFromComponents:date2Components];

NSComparisonResult result = [date1 compare:date2];
if (result == NSOrderedAscending) {
} else if (result == NSOrderedDescending) {
}  else {
    //the same
}

---

There is another handy method to create for a given date the date that represents the start of a given unit: [aCalendar rangeOfUnit:startDate:interval:forDate:]
To illustrate how this method works, see this code, that easily creates the date for the beginning of the day, week, month and year for a given date (here: now).

NSDate *now = [NSDate date];
NSDate *startOfToday = nil;
NSDate *startOfThisWeek = nil;
NSDate *startOfThisMonth = nil;
NSDate *startOfThisYear = nil;
[[NSCalendar currentCalendar] rangeOfUnit:NSDayCalendarUnit startDate:&startOfToday interval:NULL forDate:now];
[[NSCalendar currentCalendar] rangeOfUnit:NSWeekCalendarUnit startDate:&startOfThisWeek interval:NULL forDate:now];
[[NSCalendar currentCalendar] rangeOfUnit:NSMonthCalendarUnit startDate:&startOfThisMonth interval:NULL forDate:now];
[[NSCalendar currentCalendar] rangeOfUnit:NSYearCalendarUnit startDate:&startOfThisYear interval:NULL forDate:now];

NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[formatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterFullStyle];
[formatter setTimeStyle:NSDateFormatterFullStyle];

NSLog(@"%@", [formatter stringFromDate:now]);
NSLog(@"%@", [formatter stringFromDate:startOfToday]);
NSLog(@"%@", [formatter stringFromDate:startOfThisWeek]);
NSLog(@"%@", [formatter stringFromDate:startOfThisMonth]);
NSLog(@"%@", [formatter stringFromDate:startOfThisYear]);

result:

Thursday, July 12, 2012, 4:36:07 PM Central European Summer Time 
Thursday, July 12, 2012, 12:00:00 AM Central European Summer Time 
Sunday, July 8, 2012, 12:00:00 AM Central European Summer Time 
Sunday, July 1, 2012, 12:00:00 AM Central European Summer Time 
Sunday, January 1, 2012, 12:00:00 AM Central European Standard Time

this allows us to shorten the first code to:

[[NSCalendar currentCalendar] rangeOfUnit:NSDayCalendarUnit startDate:&date1 interval:NULL forDate:date1];
[[NSCalendar currentCalendar] rangeOfUnit:NSDayCalendarUnit startDate:&date2 interval:NULL forDate:date2];

NSComparisonResult result = [date1 compare:date2];
if (result == NSOrderedAscending) {
} else if (result == NSOrderedDescending) {
}  else {
    //the same
}

Note, that in this code, date1 and date2 will be overwritten. Alternatively you can pass in a reference to another NSDate pointer for startDate as shown in the code above, where now stays untouched.

Answer 2

I have used another method with NSDateFormatter and a string comparison, less smarter than NSDate compare method but faster to write and flexible enough to do variety of comparison :

NSDateFormatter *dateFormat = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormat setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd"];

if ([[dateFormat stringFromDate:date1] isEqualToString:[dateFormat stringFromDate:date2]])
{
    //It's the same day
}

Answer 3

Swift Version , Comparing Dates and ignoring their time.

let dateExam1:NSDate = NSDate.init(timeIntervalSinceNow: 300)
let dateExam2:NSDate = NSDate.init(timeIntervalSinceNow: 10000)

let currCalendar = NSCalendar.currentCalendar()

let dateCompanent1:NSDateComponents = currCalendar.components([.Year,.Month,.Day], fromDate: dateExam1)
let dateCompanent2:NSDateComponents = currCalendar.components([.Year,.Month,.Day], fromDate: dateExam2)

let date1WithoutTime:NSDate? = currCalendar .dateFromComponents(dateCompanent1)
let date2WithoutTime:NSDate? = currCalendar .dateFromComponents(dateCompanent2)
if (date1WithoutTime != nil) && (date2WithoutTime != nil)
{
    let dateCompResult:NSComparisonResult = date1WithoutTime!.compare(date2WithoutTime!)
    if (dateCompResult == NSComparisonResult.OrderedSame)
    {
        print("Same Dates")
    }
    else
    {
        print("Different Dates")
    }
}

Answer 4

Okay, so it's a few years after the original question was asked, but it's probably worth mentioning that NSCalendar now has a number of methods that make certain date comparison questions much more straight-forward:

NSCalendar *currentCalendar = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];
Bool sameDay = [currentCalendar isDate:dateA inSameDayAsDate:dateB];

Answer 5

Updating @LuAndre answer swift 5

    let dateExam1 = Date(timeIntervalSinceNow: 300)
    let dateExam2 = Date(timeIntervalSinceNow: 10000)

    let currCalendar = Calendar.current

    let dateCompanent1 = currCalendar.dateComponents([.year,.month,.day], from: dateExam1)
    let dateCompanent2 = currCalendar.dateComponents([.year,.month,.day], from: dateExam2)


    if  let date1WithoutTime = currCalendar.date(from:dateCompanent1), let dateCompanent2 = currCalendar.date(from:dateCompanent2) {
            let dateCompResult = date1WithoutTime.compare(dateCompanent2)
            if (dateCompResult == ComparisonResult.orderedSame)
            {
                print("Same Dates")
            }
            else
            {
                print("Different Dates")
            }
        
    }