How do I get the current Date in short format in Swift

Question

In the images below you can see the code I wrote and the values of all the variables:

class fun getCurrentShortDate() -> String {
    var todaysDate = NSDate()
    var dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
    dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd-MM-yyyy"
    var DateInFormat = dateFormatter.stringFromDate(todaysDate)

    return DateInFormat
}

Variable values

As you can see the current date is found no problem, but when I try to change the NSDate to a string, it just won't do it.

Solution 1

Xcode 11 or later • Swift 5.1 or later

---

extension TimeZone {
    static let gmt = TimeZone(secondsFromGMT: 0)!
}

---

extension Locale {
    static let ptBR = Locale(identifier: "pt_BR")
}

---

extension Formatter {
    static let date = DateFormatter()
}

---

extension Date {
    func localizedDescription(date dateStyle: DateFormatter.Style = .medium,
                              time timeStyle: DateFormatter.Style = .medium,
                              in timeZone: TimeZone = .current,
                              locale: Locale = .current,
                              using calendar: Calendar = .current) -> String {
        Formatter.date.calendar = calendar
        Formatter.date.locale = locale
        Formatter.date.timeZone = timeZone
        Formatter.date.dateStyle = dateStyle
        Formatter.date.timeStyle = timeStyle
        return Formatter.date.string(from: self)
    }
    var localizedDescription: String { localizedDescription() }
}

---

Date().localizedDescription  // "18 Dec 2021 06:43:50"
Date().localizedDescription(in: .gmt)  // "18 Dec 2021 06:43:50" UTC time
Date().localizedDescription(date: .short, time: .short)  // "18/12/21 03:43"
Date().localizedDescription(date: .full, time: .full)  // "Saturday, 18 December 2021 03:43:50 Brasilia Standard Time"
Date().localizedDescription(date: .full, time: .full, in: .gmt)  // "Saturday, 18 December 2021 06:43:50 Greenwich Mean Time"
Date().localizedDescription(date: .full, time: .full, locale: .ptBR)  // "sábado, 18 de dezembro de 2021 03:43:50 Horário Padrão de Brasília"

---

extension Date {

    var fullDate: String { localizedDescription(date: .full, time: .none) }
    var longDate: String { localizedDescription(date: .long, time: .none) }
    var mediumDate: String { localizedDescription(date: .medium, time: .none) }
    var shortDate: String { localizedDescription(date: .short, time: .none) }

    var fullTime: String { localizedDescription(date: .none, time: .full) }
    var longTime: String { localizedDescription(date: .none, time: .long) }
    var mediumTime: String { localizedDescription(date: .none, time: .medium) }
    var shortTime: String { localizedDescription(date: .none, time: .short) }

    var fullDateTime: String { localizedDescription(date: .full, time: .full) }
    var longDateTime: String { localizedDescription(date: .long, time: .long) }
    var mediumDateTime: String { localizedDescription(date: .medium, time: .medium) }
    var shortDateTime: String { localizedDescription(date: .short, time: .short) }
}

---

print(Date().fullDate)  // "Saturday, 18 December 2021\n"
print(Date().shortDate)  // "18/12/21\n"

print(Date().fullTime)  // "03:43:50 Brasilia Standard Time\n"
print(Date().shortTime)  // "03:43\n"

print(Date().fullDateTime)  // "Saturday, 18 December 2021 03:43:50 Brasilia Standard Time\n"
print(Date().shortDateTime)  // "18/12/21 03:43\n"

Solution 2

SWIFT 4 or 5

extension Date {

 static func getCurrentDate() -> String {

        let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()

        dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss"

        return dateFormatter.string(from: Date())

    }
}

Using

print(Date.getCurrentDate())

Solution 3

Update for Swift 3.0: Create an extension for Date

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

Usage:

Date().string(format: "yyyy-MM-dd")

Swift 2.2: Create an extension for NSDate

extension NSDate {  
    func dateStringWithFormat(format: String) -> String {
        let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
        dateFormatter.dateFormat = format
        return dateFormatter.stringFromDate(self)
    }   
}

Usage:

NSDate().dateStringWithFormat("yyyy-MM-dd")

Solution 4

You can create a extension for easily transform a String into a NSDate.

extension NSDate {
    func dateFromString(date: String, format: String) -> NSDate {
        let formatter = NSDateFormatter()
        let locale = NSLocale(localeIdentifier: "en_US_POSIX")

        formatter.locale = locale
        formatter.dateFormat = format

        return formatter.dateFromString(date)!
    }
}

Than in your function you can NSDate().dateFromString("2015-02-04 23:29:28", format: "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss") and this should works. Input date don't need to be on the same format of output date.

func getCurrentShortDate() -> String {
    var todaysDate = NSDate().dateFromString("2015-02-04 23:29:28", format:  "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss")

    var dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
    dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd-MM-yyyy"
    var DateInFormat = dateFormatter.stringFromDate(todaysDate)

    return DateInFormat
}

println(getCurrentShortDate())

The output is 04-02-2015.

Solution 5

Swift 3

Using the extension created by @doovers and some format strings from this website, you get the following:

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

Usage:

Date().string(format: "EEEE, MMM d, yyyy") // Saturday, Oct 21, 2017
Date().string(format: "MM/dd/yyyy")        // 10/21/2017
Date().string(format: "MM-dd-yyyy HH:mm")  // 10-21-2017 03:31

Date().string(format: "MMM d, h:mm a")     // Oct 21, 3:31 AM
Date().string(format: "MMMM yyyy")         // October 2017
Date().string(format: "MMM d, yyyy")       // Oct 21, 2017

Date().string(format: "E, d MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss Z") // Sat, 21 Oct 2017 03:31:40 +0000
Date().string(format: "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ")   // 2017-10-21T03:31:40+0000
Date().string(format: "dd.MM.yy")                 // 21.10.17

You could also pass milliseconds to date object like this:

Date(1508577868947).string(format: "EEEE, MMM d, yyyy") // Saturday, Oct 21, 2017

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