NSDateFormatter "Month" in 3 letters instead of full word

Question

    NSDateFormatter* formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [formatter setDateFormat:@"dd-MM-YYYY HH:mm"];        
    [formatter setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone systemTimeZone]];

If i choose MM i get the month in number: 09-05-2012 15:33 If i choose MMMM i get the month in word: 09-May-2012 15:33

What i wanted, was the month in 3 letters abbreviation.
Eg: January would be Jan

In this case May is correct because it only has 3 letters.

Quip

Use MMM for short month name – Baghdad

Answer 1

Have you tried: [formatter setDateFormat:@"dd-MMM-YYYY HH:mm"]; and then [formatter stringFromDate:someNSDate];

Quatrefoil

M gives me number MMM gives me full word – Quip

Maybe you are right, i´m trying with May. Should use a different month, but i´m on the simulator... – Quip

Hahaha, "May" is the only non-conclusive month to test this on. – Chesney

This post helped me: #35969683 – Monologue

Answer 2

IF you get the two things in the wrong order, you don't get the expected output.

[formatter setDateFormat:@"MMM"];
[formatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterMediumStyle];

does NOT give the same results as:

[formatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterMediumStyle];
[formatter setDateFormat:@"MMM"];

(The second of these two snippets is now happily handing out Sep Oct etc in my app)

Ruination

dateStyle and dateFormat are different things. One overrides the other, NSDateFormatterMediumStyle uses the system wide format for short dates, while setting the dateFormat to MMM specifies that only the shot month value should be used. – Spallation

Answer 3

In SWIFT

let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()

dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd MMM yyyy HH:mm"

dateFormatter.stringFromDate(NSDate())

Peggypegma

Answer 4

This is a stripped down solution that works with Swift 4 in producing a 3 letter month output:

let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd MMM YYYY, HH:mm:ss"

And to verify:

print(dateFormatter.string(from: Date())) // 20 Mar 2018, 23:41:40

As previously noted, MMM is the correct syntax for getting the desired month output.

Bonnes

Answer 5

for swift 4 go with:

if let dateFormatter = DateFormatter(){
    dateFormatter.dateStyle = .medium
    // eventually:
    //let locale = Locale(identifier: ...                       
    //dateFormatter!.locale = locale
    dateFormatter.dateStyle = .medium
    dateFormatter!.dateFormat = "dd MMM YYYY, HH:mm:ss"
 } else..
        ..

Hi

Answer 6

Actually you can set your dateStyle to medium (ie 'Jan', 'Feb' etc) like this:

[formatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterMediumStyle];

Madeira

Answer 7

For those who do not get a full month strong with "MMM", you can get it with

dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd MMMM yyyy"

Tested on Swift 4.2

Householder