Question

Confused here… I have two dates which I NSLog to console and get:
dates are 2011-03-30 13:33:57 +0000 - 2011-03-28 13:33:57 +0000

One date is clearly later than the other… However, in the code below it doesn’t matter if I use [dateUSERPREFS laterDate:dateXML] or [dateUSERPREFS earlierDate:dateXML] I get “we get first IF” displaying in the console?

Any ideas? Thanks,

NSDate *dateXML = [df dateFromString:last_modifiedXML];
NSDate *dateUSERPREFS = [df dateFromString:last_modifiedUSERPREFS];

NSLog(@"dates are %@ - %@", dateXML, dateUSERPREFS);

if ([dateUSERPREFS laterDate:dateXML]) {        
    NSLog(@"we get first IF");
}

Answer 1

[aDate laterDate:anotherDate] returns an NSDate, not a BOOL. Specifically, it returns the later of the two dates.

You want to use compare: instead:

NSComparisonResult comparisonResult = [dateUSERPREFS compare:dateXML];
if (comparisonResult == NSOrderedAscending) {
    // case where dateUSERPREFS is before dateXML
} else if (comparisonResult == NSOrderedSame) {
    // both dates are the same
} else if (comparisonResult == NSOrderedDescending) {
    // this could have just been a plain else; dateUSERPrefs after dateXML
}

Alternatively, you could use [dateUSERPREFS timeIntervalSinceDate:dateXML] which gives you the (signed) number of seconds from dateXML to dateUSERPREFS.