Get formatted date as NSDate

Question

I've a NSDateFormatter set like this:

YYYY/MM/dd HH:mm:ss

I can convert it from NSDate to NSString and from NSString to NSDate. But what I want is to get the NSDate as I formatted it. I thought about converting it to NSString then convert back to NSDate but this way is just awful, I'm sure there is a simpler way, right?

That's like saying I want an integer `123` to exist as `1-2-3`. An integer is an integer. You can't change its inherent data type representation. Same with dates. — Aaron, Mar 18 '14 at 17:13
If you want to get it as you formatted it, just leave it formatted. If you want to parse/display it accurately, use "yyyy" instead of "YYYY". — Hot Licks, Mar 18 '14 at 17:14

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 18 '14 at 17:02

7

You can't format an NSDate, it is an exact point in time. If you are converting an NSDate to a string, and back to a NSDate, they will be identical

answered Mar 18 '14 at 17:02

Logan

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So, there is no way to get NSDate like my syntax 'YYYY/MM/dd HH:mm:ss'? – Idan Moshe Mar 18 '14 at 17:04
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@IdanMoshe An NSDate object has no intrinsic string representation. It simply internally represents the number of milliseconds since some reference date. In order to convert that number to a nice-looking format, you need to use an NSDateFormatter. – Alexis King Mar 18 '14 at 17:06
No, there is no way. But there is a way to get such a representation of a date. See the link I posted. – Amin Negm-Awad Mar 18 '14 at 17:06
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An NSDate isn't stored that way, it represents a fixed point in time. The format isn't formatting the date, it's providing information for the dateformatter on how to decode whatever you sent it and convert it to an nsdate. – Logan Mar 18 '14 at 17:06
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If I would get a penny for each Q of this type, … I would have an expensive yacht, an expensive house and cheap girls. – Amin Negm-Awad Mar 18 '14 at 17:08

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:11

2

A date is never formatted. The string representation and only the string representation of a date is formatted.

Unexpected value from NSDate

edited May 23 '17 at 12:11

Community

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answered Mar 18 '14 at 17:02

Amin Negm-Awad

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 18 '14 at 17:06

May be you want to write simple category to NSDate that will return right formatted string?

NSDate+formatted.h

@interface NSDate (formatted)

-(NSString)formatedString;

@end

NSDate+formatted.m

@implementation  NSDate (formatted)
-(NSString)formatedString
{
// your formatter code here 
}
@end

Get formatted date as NSDate

3 Answers3