Question

How do I test for current date?

Asked by: mptechmin

I am writing my first iPhone program and need to test for what the date is. If a certain date is current or has passed, I want to display a new label field.

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Asked On
2009-11-06 at 12:41:31ID24879235
Tags

iPhone Cocoa Touch programming

,

Cocoa

Topics

Apple Programming

,

Objective-C Programming Language

Participating Experts
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    Answers

     

    by: fridomPosted on 2009-11-06 at 22:59:49ID: 25765247

    Is there NSDate available on iPhone?

    #include <Foundation/Foundation.h> 

int main(void) {
  int i, max_index;
  NSDate *date1, *date2;
  NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [NSAutoreleasePool new];
  NSComparisonResult cmpResult;
  date1 = [NSDate dateWithString:@"2009-11-0106:00:01+00:00"];
  date2 = [NSDate dateWithString:@"2009-11-0206:00:01+00:00"];
  
  cmpResult = [date1 compare:date2];
  switch (cmpResult)  {
  case  NSOrderedDescending:
    puts("date1 is later than date2");
    break;
  case NSOrderedAscending: 
    puts("date1 is earlier than date2");
    break;
  default:
    puts("date1 is equal to date2");
    break;
  }
      
  [pool release];
  return 0;
 
}
                                              
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    by: CuriousRabbitPosted on 2009-11-14 at 16:42:29ID: 25823111

    There is an NSDate on iPhone. NSDate does not do string conversions itself, it is a data class. For conversion to/from a localized string, you want NSDateFormatter.

     

    by: fridomPosted on 2009-11-14 at 23:41:58ID: 25823956

    Well if it has NSDate it should have dateWithString and this is the only "standard time string" it accepts. But of couse he and take localiced strings and bring them in the proper Form.

     

    by: CuriousRabbitPosted on 2009-11-15 at 09:41:29ID: 25825602

    NSDate has no dateWithString method, at least not in the iPhone SDK. You need to use an instance of NSDateFormatter to parse an NSString into an NSDate.

     

    by: SnapplesPosted on 2011-05-05 at 14:45:31ID: 35702295

    To get the current date + time, you simply need to call:
    NSDate* currentDate = [NSDate date];


    If you actually want to create your own date, you should do something like this
    NSDateFormatter* formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [formatter setDateFormat:@"dd-MM-yyyy hh:mm:ss"];
    NSDate* newDate = [formatter dateFromString:@"05-05-2011 23:40:11"];
    [formatter release];

    The formatter will change a string to a date based on the format you enter.
    yyyy = year
    MM = month
    dd = day
    HH = hour (in 24h notation)
    mm = minutes
    ss = seconds


    If you want to check if a date has passed you should do:

    NSTimeInterval interval = [currentDate timeIntervalSinceDate:newDate];
    if (interval > 0)
    // currentDate is more recent, else newDate is


    20120131-EE-VQP-002

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