How can i convert the string to date and date from string?

Question

My Input String is

NSString *inputString=@"15 February 2012 17:05";
NSDateFormatter *dateFormat = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormat setDateFormat:@"dd MMMM YYYY HH:mm"];
NSDate *dateVal = [dateFormat dateFromString:inputString];

NSDateFormatter *dateFormat2 = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormat2 setDateFormat:@"MM/dd/YYYY HH:mm"];
NSString *outputString = [dateFormat2 stringFromDate:dateVal];
[dateFormat release];
[dateFormat2 release];

I got the following date outputString=12/25/2011 17:05

But it should be 02/15/2012 17:05..Where did i do the mistake?

Answer 1

You are using wrong format for date format and also there is no need to create another instance of NSDateFormatter -

    NSString *inputString=@"15 February 2012 17:05"; 
    NSDateFormatter *dateFormat = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init]; 
    [dateFormat setDateFormat:@"dd MMMM yyyy HH:mm"]; 
    NSDate *dateVal = [dateFormat dateFromString:inputString];

    [dateFormat setDateFormat:@"MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm"];
    NSString *outputString = [dateFormat stringFromDate:dateVal];

Answer 2

The date format is incorrect, use:

[dateFormat setDateFormat:@"dd MMMM yyyy HH:mm"];

Capital "YYYY" is for use in "Week of Year" based calendars.

See: unicode Date_Format_Patterns

BTW, an NSLog of dateVal would have shown that the problem was on the input formatting.

Answer 3

Does your locale correspond to the format you are trying to parse? By default NSDateFormatter uses current locale.

Answer 4

The input date format should be:

 [dateFormat setDateFormat:@"dd MMMM yyyy HH:mm"];