formatting date issue returning Nil all the time

Question

I have a NSDate *da and when i print i get the following string : 2013-10-24 00:00:00 +0000.

NSDateFormatter *form = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[form setDateFormat:@"yyyy-mm-dd"];
NSDate *myD = [form dateFromString: @"2013-10-24"];

Now what i want to do is to compare NSDate *da and NSDate *myD. If it matches i need to print a NSLog.

if ([da isEqualToDate:myD]) {    
    NSLog(@"ok");               
} else {
    NSLog(@"bad");
}

The problem is that myD becomes null. How can i solve this?

UPDATE

Still there's a problem with the formatter; However now it doesn't return NIL.

When i print da i get the output 2013-10-24 13:00:00 +0000 and when i print myD i get the output 2013-10-23 18:30:00 +0000. Why didn't this get format correctly. I think there still exist some error in the formatting part of my code. Help

UPDATE 2

NSDate *da = [NSDate date]; ///// PRINTS 2013-09-16 11:52:40 +0000

    NSDateFormatter *form = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [form setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd"];
    NSDate *myD = [form dateFromString: @"2013-09-16"]; ////// PRINTS 2013-09-16 00:00:00 +0000

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11412852/compare-two-nsdates-in-iphone — n00bProgrammer, Sep 16 '13 at 11:19
possible duplicate of [NSDateFormatter dateFromString returns incorrect date](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11273001/nsdateformatter-datefromstring-returns-incorrect-date) — Hot Licks, Sep 16 '13 at 12:00

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 16 '13 at 11:19

1

Your format string is wrong as 'mm' stands for minutes, not months. Correct format will be

[form setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd"];

answered Sep 16 '13 at 11:19

Vladimir

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There tend to be some error in the formatting part of my code. Can you please have a look, i have updated the post. – Sharon Watinsan Sep 16 '13 at 11:36

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 16 '13 at 11:19

1

Month should be in uppercase:

[form setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd"];

NSDateFormatter uses the specifications detailed here.

answered Sep 16 '13 at 11:19

trojanfoe

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I am still having a problem with the formatting. I have edited my Question. Help – Sharon Watinsan Sep 16 '13 at 11:36
@sharonHwk It's a timezone issue; search for that and you should solve your issue. – trojanfoe Sep 16 '13 at 11:39

kalyani puvvada · Answer 3 · 2013-09-16T11:27:55.247

0

You can change your dateformatter like

 [form setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd"];

and You can compare like this..

 NSTimeInterval daInterval = [da timeIntervalSince1970];
 NSTimeInterval myDInterval = [myD timeIntervalSince1970];

 if(daInterval == myDInterval)
    NSLog(@"dates are same..");

edited Sep 16 '13 at 11:27

answered Sep 16 '13 at 11:18

kalyani puvvada

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1

Question is not how to compare `NSDate` instances, but `NSDateFormatter` returning `nil` for date format. – Amar Sep 16 '13 at 11:26
You can edit your answer to improve it and I will remove the down-vote. – Amar Sep 16 '13 at 11:27
I have edited my post, there still exist a problem in the formatting. Please have a look. – Sharon Watinsan Sep 16 '13 at 11:37

Grzegorz Krukowski · Answer 4 · 2013-09-16T11:51:05.620

0

I think the problem you have is that you are not doing this:

[form setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone timeZoneWithName:@"GMT"]];

And you create a time in different timezone and than it gets formatted to your local timezone while printing.

edited Sep 16 '13 at 11:51

answered Sep 16 '13 at 11:30

Grzegorz Krukowski

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I have updated my question, there seems to be an error in the code. – Sharon Watinsan Sep 16 '13 at 11:37
Please read my answer - you don't need formatting for comparation of dates - that's really wrooong way to do that. – Grzegorz Krukowski Sep 16 '13 at 11:38
I tried your code but its still the same. I think it's comparing the time as well `13:00:00 +0000` and `18:30:00 +0000`. therefore how should i get rid of it. – Sharon Watinsan Sep 16 '13 at 11:41
Can you update question with the code of how you create the second date and what you expect there ? – Grzegorz Krukowski Sep 16 '13 at 11:42

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 16 '13 at 11:58

    NSString *str1=@"2013-10-24 00:00:00 +0000";
    NSDateFormatter *form = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [form setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss Z"];
    NSDate *date1= [form dateFromString:str1];
    NSLog(@"%@",date1);


    NSString *str2=@"2013-10-24 00:00:00 +0000";
    NSDate *date2= [form dateFromString:str2];

   if ([date1 isEqualToDate:date2]) {
      NSLog(@"Same");
   }
   else
   {
      NSLog(@"Not Same");
  }

i hope it is useful..

formatting date issue returning Nil all the time

5 Answers5