Convert NSDate to String in iOS Swift

Question

I am trying to convert a NSDate to a String and then Change Format. But when I pass NSDate to String it is producing whitespace.

 let formatter = DateFormatter()
 let myString = (String(describing: date))
 formatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"
 let yourDate: Date? = formatter.date(from: myString)
 formatter.dateFormat = "dd-MMM-yyyy"
 print(yourDate)

show ur `date` , it is current date or else – Anbu.Karthik Mar 01 '17 at 06:27 — Anbu.Karthik, Mar 01 '17 at 06:27
its not Current Date, i am getting from Datepicker – Inder_iOS Mar 01 '17 at 06:31 — Inder_iOS, Mar 01 '17 at 06:31
show the `Datepicker` result – Anbu.Karthik Mar 01 '17 at 06:33 — Anbu.Karthik, Mar 01 '17 at 06:33

score 181 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 09 '22 at 07:03

181

you get the detail information from Apple Dateformatter Document.If you want to set the dateformat for your dateString, see this link , the detail dateformat you can get here for e.g , do like

let formatter = DateFormatter()
// initially set the format based on your datepicker date / server String
formatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"

let myString = formatter.string(from: Date()) // string purpose I add here 
// convert your string to date
let yourDate = formatter.date(from: myString)
//then again set the date format whhich type of output you need
formatter.dateFormat = "dd-MMM-yyyy"
// again convert your date to string
let myStringDate = formatter.string(from: yourDate!)

print(myStringDate)

you get the output as

edited Feb 09 '22 at 07:03

Sourabh Sharma

8,222
5
68
78

answered Mar 01 '17 at 06:32

Anbu.Karthik

82,064
23
174
143

2

but date has no proper format we need to convert based on our reauirment – Anbu.Karthik Mar 01 '17 at 06:39
Thanks Anbu its working – Inder_iOS Mar 01 '17 at 06:48

score 78 · Answer 2 · answered May 10 '17 at 06:30

78

I always use this code while converting Date to String . (Swift 3)

extension Date
{
    func toString( dateFormat format  : String ) -> String
    {
        let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
        dateFormatter.dateFormat = format
        return dateFormatter.string(from: self)
    }

}

and call like this . .

let today = Date()
today.toString(dateFormat: "dd-MM")

answered May 10 '17 at 06:30

roy

6,685
3
26
39

Easiest method by far. Date formatters are just object oriented programming when you don't actually need it. – ICW Sep 18 '18 at 20:36
1

`toString` reserved keyword. have to change it to something else. ;) – Im Batman Sep 20 '18 at 09:15
Yeah, I hate factory objects. Like why? Just let me call a method on the object. I think they were cool in the early 2000s. – sudo Dec 15 '18 at 08:06

Adrian · Answer 3 · 2018-01-10T13:47:07.403

DateFormatter has some factory date styles for those too lazy to tinker with formatting strings. If you don't need a custom style, here's another option:

extension Date {  
  func asString(style: DateFormatter.Style) -> String {
    let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
    dateFormatter.dateStyle = style
    return dateFormatter.string(from: self)
  }
}

This gives you the following styles:

short, medium, long, full

Example usage:

let myDate = Date()
myDate.asString(style: .full)   // Wednesday, January 10, 2018
myDate.asString(style: .long)   // January 10, 2018
myDate.asString(style: .medium) // Jan 10, 2018
myDate.asString(style: .short)  // 1/10/18

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 01 '17 at 06:34

7

Your updated code.update it.

let formatter = DateFormatter()
formatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"
let myString = formatter.string(from: date as Date)
let yourDate: Date? = formatter.date(from: myString)
formatter.dateFormat = "dd-MMM-yyyy"
print(yourDate!)

answered Mar 01 '17 at 06:34

Brijesh Shiroya

3,323
1
13
20

but yourDate is from type Data – Aviram Netanel Aug 27 '18 at 15:46

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 30 '17 at 19:25

Something to keep in mind when creating formatters is to try to reuse the same instance if you can, as formatters are fairly computationally expensive to create. The following is a pattern I frequently use for apps where I can share the same formatter app-wide, adapted from NSHipster.

extension DateFormatter {

    static var sharedDateFormatter: DateFormatter = {
        let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()   
        // Add your formatter configuration here     
        dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"
        return dateFormatter
    }()
}

Usage:

let dateString = DateFormatter.sharedDateFormatter.string(from: Date())

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 01 '17 at 06:41

After allocating DateFormatter you need to give the formatted string then you can convert as string like this way

var date = Date()
let formatter = DateFormatter()
formatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"
let myString = formatter.string(from: date)
let yourDate: Date? = formatter.date(from: myString)
formatter.dateFormat = "dd-MMM-yyyy"
let updatedString = formatter.string(from: yourDate!)
print(updatedString)

OutPut

01-Mar-2017

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 17 '17 at 13:06

You can use this extension:

extension Date {

    func toString(withFormat format: String) -> String {
        let formatter = DateFormatter()
        formatter.dateFormat = format
        let myString = formatter.string(from: self)
        let yourDate = formatter.date(from: myString)
        formatter.dateFormat = format

        return formatter.string(from: yourDate!)
    }
}

And use it in your view controller like this (replace <"yyyy"> with your format):

yourString = yourDate.toString(withFormat: "yyyy")

Convert NSDate to String in iOS Swift

7 Answers7

Linked