Question

I am always getting a null from the date formatter. I tried examples in all the other questions and didn’t help.

 NSLog(@"Date is %@", summaryItem.SubmittedDate);
NSLog(@"Formatted Date is %@", [df stringFromDate: summaryItem.SubmittedDate ]);
BOOL isDate = [summaryItem.SubmittedDate isKindOfClass: [NSDate class]];
NSLog(@"Date %@ a date.", isDate ? @"is" : @"is not");

Looking at the definition of SubmittedDate you have

@property (nonatomic, retain) NSDate *SubmittedDate;

I am initializing the Date Fomatter as so

- (void) initDateFormatter {
  if( df == nil ) {
    df = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [df setDateFormat:@"MM/dd/yyyy"];
    [df setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterShortStyle];
  }
}

1. Output to Log:
   • 2012-11-21 10:00:41.650 Mobile_v2[4093:f803] Date is 11/21/2012 10:00:41 AM
   • 2012-11-21 10:00:41.651 Mobile_v2[4093:f803] Formatted Date is (null)
   • 2012-11-21 10:00:41.681 Mobile_v2[4093:f803] Date is not a date.

Can anyone see what’s wrong? Is my date format incorrect?

Code in my SBJson class

NSString *newDate = (NSString *)[receivedObjects objectForKey:@"SubmittedDate"];
NSDate *submittedDate = [df dateFromString:newDate];  //(NSDate *) 
if ((NSNull *) submittedDate == [NSNull null]) {
    self.SubmittedDate = nil;
} else {
    self.SubmittedDate = submittedDate;
}

Actual value is “11/21/2012 10:47:54 AM”

Answer 1

From your log summaryItem.SubmittedDate object is not of class NSDate.

First log the class of that object,

NSLog(@"%@",  [summaryItem.SubmittedDate class]);

if the output is not NSDate, there is something wrong in implementation (.m file) in the class where
@property (nonatomic, retain) NSDate *SubmittedDate; is declared.