H

18

196

I want to convert the string "2014-07-15 06:55:14.198000+00:00" to an NSDate in Swift.

Hube answered 16/7, 2014 at 9:44 Comment(5)

Looks like your string "2014-07-15 06:55:14.198000+00:00" is not reachable if you use NSDateFormatter – Sherfield 16/7, 2014 at 10:14

userguide.icu-project.org/formatparse/datetime helped me a lot – Hube 28/8, 2015 at 6:42

As a companion resource to all of the answers below, I would highly recommend checking out nsdateformatter.com – Rewire 30/10, 2016 at 21:34

The old answers here are really WRONG. The Apple doco says crystal clear you need to cache the formatter. https://mcmap.net/q/127867/-how-can-i-convert-string-date-to-nsdate – Mufi 18/7, 2017 at 0:8

If you need any helper with the format, nsdateformatter.com – Cincinnatus 16/12, 2017 at 11:29

N

342

try this:

let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = /* find out and place date format from 
                            * http://userguide.icu-project.org/formatparse/datetime
                            */
let date = dateFormatter.dateFromString(/* your_date_string */)

For further query, check NSDateFormatter and DateFormatter classes of Foundation framework for Objective-C and Swift, respectively.

Swift 3 and later

let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = /* date_format_you_want_in_string from
                            * http://userguide.icu-project.org/formatparse/datetime
                            */
guard let date = dateFormatter.date(from: /* your_date_string */) else {
   fatalError("ERROR: Date conversion failed due to mismatched format.")
}

// use date constant here

Edit:

Alternative date time format reference https://unicode-org.github.io/icu/userguide/format_parse/datetime/

Normanormal answered 16/7, 2014 at 10:5 Comment(9)

Found the solution just need to set "yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss.SSSSxxx" this date format – Hube 16/7, 2014 at 10:19

I have a date string like this "2014-07-15 06:55:14-0400" and i tried using yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ssZZZ . But I'm not able to get the date object out of the string. – Wiburg 6/4, 2015 at 20:17

@Prem, if you see the output is "2014-07-15 10:55:14 +0000" that will be correct. As from NSDate description, output of date would be calculated with difference(here, GMT -4 hours). If you want to get the difference between GMT and UTC, which is -0400 check this reference – Normanormal 7/4, 2015 at 11:14

@x4h1d, Hey I've got it! I made a mistake in hh which should be HH. Thanks! – Wiburg 7/4, 2015 at 16:59

The string I am receiving is "2000-04-25T00:00:00.000Z" what should the format be? – Kimmie 1/10, 2015 at 19:39

@ lmiguelvargasf, I think that would be yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'. I assumed Z is just a character here. Remember, Z has a special meaning too. If you want Z to specify as basic hms than the format would be yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ. – Normanormal 2/10, 2015 at 2:42

This QA page is one of those rare cases on SO where, all the answers are simply wrong. – Mufi 26/3, 2017 at 13:1

I was trying the above date format but it wouldn't work in Swift 4.0 though this did: "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss ZZZ" I hope it helps someone. – Eudosia 26/10, 2017 at 12:13

dateFormatter.date(from:) returns a "Date?", not an NSDate. This is not the answer. – Damalus 30/12, 2017 at 2:20

X

73

Swift 4

import Foundation

let dateString = "2014-07-15" // change to your date format

var dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd"

let date = dateFormatter.date(from: dateString)
println(date)

Swift 3

import Foundation

var dateString = "2014-07-15" // change to your date format

var dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd"

var date = dateFormatter.dateFromString(dateString)
println(date)

I can do it with this code.

Xanthin answered 16/7, 2014 at 10:5 Comment(6)

The code is not right. It outputs Some "Jan 15, 2014, 12:00 AM" – Cadman 21/9, 2014 at 11:55

using dd instead of DD should help fix the "always January" issue. – Govan 19/10, 2014 at 7:17

The correct version is, yyyy-MM-dd, otherwise, the parsed date is stuck in January - I updated the answer to reflect the change. – Eldwen 13/5, 2015 at 5:19

What if I want to pass the current date as string. Will this work? – Buttons 3/11, 2016 at 11:39

@Eldwen , Kittisak : I am getting the out put, Optional(2014-07-14 18:30:00 +0000) that means, one day is decremented. How can I fix this ? – Idealistic 10/7, 2017 at 16:57

@VineeshTP: I have configured the time zone to fix this issue. Please check the below line, dateFormatter.timeZone = TimeZone(identifier: "UTC") – Baranowski 12/7, 2023 at 4:58

C

56

 func convertDateFormatter(date: String) -> String
 {

    let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
    dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ"//this your string date format
    dateFormatter.timeZone = NSTimeZone(name: "UTC")
    let date = dateFormatter.dateFromString(date)


    dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy MMM EEEE HH:mm"///this is what you want to convert format
    dateFormatter.timeZone = NSTimeZone(name: "UTC")
    let timeStamp = dateFormatter.stringFromDate(date!)


    return timeStamp
}

Updated for Swift 3.

func convertDateFormatter(date: String) -> String
{

    let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
    dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ"//this your string date format
    dateFormatter.timeZone = NSTimeZone(name: "UTC") as TimeZone!
    let date = dateFormatter.date(from: date)


    dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy MMM EEEE HH:mm"///this is what you want to convert format
    dateFormatter.timeZone = NSTimeZone(name: "UTC") as TimeZone!
    let timeStamp = dateFormatter.string(from: date!)


    return timeStamp
}

Copyedit answered 19/8, 2015 at 20:16 Comment(0)

F

20

Details

Swift 4, Xcode 9.2
Swift 5, Xcode 10.2 (10E125)

Solution

import Foundation

extension DateFormatter {

    convenience init (format: String) {
        self.init()
        dateFormat = format
        locale = Locale.current
    }
}

extension String {

    func toDate (dateFormatter: DateFormatter) -> Date? {
        return dateFormatter.date(from: self)
    }

    func toDateString (dateFormatter: DateFormatter, outputFormat: String) -> String? {
        guard let date = toDate(dateFormatter: dateFormatter) else { return nil }
        return DateFormatter(format: outputFormat).string(from: date)
    }
}

extension Date {

    func toString (dateFormatter: DateFormatter) -> String? {
        return dateFormatter.string(from: self)
    }
}

Usage

var dateString = "14.01.2017T14:54:00"
let dateFormatter = DateFormatter(format: "dd.MM.yyyy'T'HH:mm:ss")
let date = Date()

print("original String with date:               \(dateString)")
print("date String() to Date():                 \(dateString.toDate(dateFormatter: dateFormatter)!)")
print("date String() to formated date String(): \(dateString.toDateString(dateFormatter: dateFormatter, outputFormat: "dd MMMM")!)")
let dateFormatter2 = DateFormatter(format: "dd MMM HH:mm")
print("format Date():                           \(date.toString(dateFormatter: dateFormatter2)!)")

Result

More information

About date format

Facula answered 23/1, 2017 at 6:25 Comment(0)

L

15

If you're going to need to parse the string into a date often, you may want to move the functionality into an extension. I created a sharedCode.swift file and put my extensions there:

extension String
{   
    func toDateTime() -> NSDate
    {
        //Create Date Formatter
        let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()

        //Specify Format of String to Parse
        dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss.SSSSxxx"

        //Parse into NSDate
        let dateFromString : NSDate = dateFormatter.dateFromString(self)!

        //Return Parsed Date
        return dateFromString
    }
}

Then if you want to convert your string into a NSDate you can just write something like:

var myDate = myDateString.toDateTime()

Lyric answered 29/3, 2015 at 23:39 Comment(3)

Thanks. It's also possible, though less useful, to write: var myDate = "04-05-2015".toDateTime() I found this handy when setting up test data. – Ljoka 2/11, 2015 at 16:57

I'm pretty sure that the hh should be HH in this case. – Boonie 25/2, 2016 at 10:15

This does not give me in the format I specify: var date = NSDate(); let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter(); dateFormatter.dateFormat = "MMMM d, YYYY"; let myDate = dateFormatter.stringFromDate(date); And on top of this if i use your extension like this -> var myDate2 = myDate.toDateTime(); It's giving me a whole different date and not the current date. – Buttons 3/11, 2016 at 11:40

H

8

For Swift 3

func stringToDate(_ str: String)->Date{
    let formatter = DateFormatter()
    formatter.dateFormat="yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss Z"
    return formatter.date(from: str)!
}
func dateToString(_ str: Date)->String{
    var dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
    dateFormatter.timeStyle=DateFormatter.Style.short
    return dateFormatter.string(from: str)
}

Haileyhailfellowwellmet answered 22/2, 2017 at 5:46 Comment(0)

M

6

The code fragments on this QA page are "upside down"...

The first thing Apple mentions is that you cache your formatter...

Link to Apple doco stating exactly how to do this:

Cache Formatters for Efficiency Creating a date formatter is not a cheap operation. ...cache a single instance...

Use a global...

let df : DateFormatter = {
    let formatter = DateFormatter()
    formatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd"
    return formatter 
}()

Then simply use that formatter anywhere...

let s = df.string(from: someDate)

or

let d = df.date(from: someString)

Or use any of the other many, many convenient methods on DateFormatter.

It is that simple.

(If you write an extension on String, your code is completely "upside down" - you can't use any dateFormatter calls!)

Note that usually you will have a few of those globals .. such as "formatForClient" "formatForPubNub" "formatForDisplayOnInvoiceScreen" .. etc.

Mufi answered 21/2, 2017 at 14:53 Comment(1)

No need to leave them at global scope. You can extend Formatter just declare your properties static. check this https://mcmap.net/q/130000/-how-to-calculate-amount-of-days-in-each-quarter – Urbanus 3/5, 2017 at 2:41

B

4

Swift support extensions, with extension you can add a new functionality to an existing class, structure, enumeration, or protocol type.

You can add a new init function to NSDate object by extenging the object using the extension keyword.

extension NSDate
{
    convenience
    init(dateString:String) {
        let dateStringFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
        dateStringFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyyMMdd"
        dateStringFormatter.locale = NSLocale(localeIdentifier: "fr_CH_POSIX")
        let d = dateStringFormatter.dateFromString(dateString)!
        self.init(timeInterval:0, sinceDate:d)
    }
}

Now you can init a NSDate object using:

let myDateObject = NSDate(dateString:"2010-12-15 06:00:00")

Bubalo answered 4/1, 2016 at 21:32 Comment(2)

I like the init way. Isn't there another way to create the date without using timeInterval? what if nsdate stops having an initializer with a date parameter? how would you solve it? Personally I prefer an init way but I don't know how to overcome this problem – Atrophy 9/2, 2016 at 10:31

I have an issue: my date as string is like this: "2017-03-10 22:16:00 +0000" and I used this format: "yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss Z" and this one: "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss". But for both, when I do this: let beginDate = df.date(from: beginDateString), I get a nil! why? (df = DateFormatter()) – Filth 6/3, 2017 at 21:50

R

4

Since Swift 3, many of the NS prefixes have been dropped.

let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ" 
/* date format string rules
 * http://userguide.icu-project.org/formatparse/datetime
 */

let date = dateFormatter.date(from: dateString)

Richma answered 4/10, 2016 at 17:56 Comment(1)

I have an issue: my date as string is like this: "2017-03-10 22:16:00 +0000" and I used this format: "yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss Z" and this one: "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss". But for both, when I do this: let beginDate = df.date(from: beginDateString), I get a nil! why? (df = DateFormatter()) – Filth 6/3, 2017 at 21:50

P

4

Swift 3,4:

2 useful conversions:

string(from: Date) // to convert from Date to a String
date(from: String) // to convert from String to Date

Usage: 1.

let date = Date() //gives today's date
let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd.MM.yyyy"
let todaysDateInUKFormat = dateFormatter.string(from: date)

2.

 let someDateInString = "23.06.2017"
 var getDateFromString = dateFormatter.date(from: someDateInString)

Penoyer answered 23/6, 2017 at 5:16 Comment(0)

P

3

FOR SWIFT 3.1

func convertDateStringToDate(longDate: String) -> String{

    /* INPUT: longDate = "2017-01-27T05:00:00.000Z"
     * OUTPUT: "1/26/17"
     * date_format_you_want_in_string from
     * http://userguide.icu-project.org/formatparse/datetime
     */

    let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
    dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ"
    let date = dateFormatter.date(from: longDate)

    if date != nil {

        let formatter = DateFormatter()
        formatter.dateStyle = .short
        let dateShort = formatter.string(from: date!)

        return dateShort

    } else {

        return longDate

    }
}

NOTE: THIS WILL RETURN THE ORIGINAL STRING IF ERROR

Phototopography answered 2/5, 2017 at 16:58 Comment(0)

I

2

To add String within Date Format in Swift, I did this

 var dataFormatter:NSDateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
                dataFormatter.dateFormat = "dd-MMMM 'at' HH:mm a"

cell.timeStamplbl.text = dataFormatter.stringFromDate(object.createdAt)

Irreligious answered 27/5, 2015 at 11:20 Comment(0)

J

2

This work for me..

    import Foundation
    import UIKit

    //dateString = "01/07/2017"
    private func parseDate(_ dateStr: String) -> String {
            let simpleDateFormat = DateFormatter()
            simpleDateFormat.dateFormat = "dd/MM/yyyy" //format our date String
            let dateFormat = DateFormatter()
            dateFormat.dateFormat = "dd 'de' MMMM 'de' yyyy" //format return

            let date = simpleDateFormat.date(from: dateStr)
            return dateFormat.string(from: date!)
    }

Jenette answered 1/7, 2017 at 23:36 Comment(0)

O

2

You can try this swift code

    let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
    dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd/MM/yyyy"//same as strDate date formator
    dateFormatter.timeZone = TimeZone(abbreviation: "GMT+0:00")//Must used if you get one day less in conversion
    let convertedDateObject = dateFormatter.date(from: strDate)

Overzealous answered 11/1, 2019 at 6:34 Comment(1)

TimeZone(abbreviation: "GMT+0:00") , you saved my day – Faiyum 25/10, 2021 at 10:15

R

1

Below are some string to date format converting options can be usedin swift iOS.

Thursday, Dec 27, 2018 format= EEEE, MMM d, yyyy
12/27/2018 format= MM/dd/yyyy
12-27-2018 09:59 format= MM-dd-yyyy HH:mm
Dec 27, 9:59 AM format= MMM d, h:mm a
December 2018 format= MMMM yyyy
Dec 27, 2018 format= MMM d, yyyy
Thu, 27 Dec 2018 09:59:19 +0000 format= E, d MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss Z
2018-12-27T09:59:19+0000 format= yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ
27.12.18 format= dd.MM.yy
09:59:19.815 format= HH:mm:ss.SSS

Reductase answered 27/12, 2018 at 11:26 Comment(0)

H

1

SWIFT 5, Xcode 11.0

Pass your (date in string) in "dateString" and in "dateFormat" pass format you want. To choose format, use NDateFormatter website.

func getDateFrom(dateString: String, dateFormat: String) -> Date? {
    let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
    dateFormatter.dateFormat = dateFormat
    dateFormatter.locale = Locale(identifier: "en_US")
    guard let date = dateFormatter.date(from: dateString) else {return nil}
    return date
}

Hypocrisy answered 31/3, 2020 at 19:43 Comment(0)

C

0

Swift: iOS
if we have string, convert it to NSDate,

var dataString = profileValue["dob"] as String
var dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "MM-dd-yyyy"

// convert string into date
let dateValue:NSDate? = dateFormatter.dateFromString(dataString)

if you have and date picker parse date like this

// to avoid any nil value
if let isDate = dateValue {
self.datePicker.date = isDate
}

Camp answered 12/11, 2014 at 12:16 Comment(0)

P

-3

import Foundation

let now : String = "2014-07-16 03:03:34 PDT"
var date : NSDate
var dateFormatter : NSDateFormatter

date = dateFormatter.dateFromString(now)

date // $R6: __NSDate = 2014-07-16 03:03:34 PDT

https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes/NSDateFormatter_Class/index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000447-SW32

Peachey answered 16/7, 2014 at 10:10 Comment(1)

How is this supposed to work? The date formatter is not initialized and there's also no reason to split the declaration and initialization of date. – Guardi 22/7, 2015 at 17:52