Question

Simple case of trying to prove I can convert NSString to NSDate. Create an NSDate, turn it into an NSString, then back into an NSDate. The date looks fine as a string, but when I convert it back I always get some date like 12/25/2011 …. Can someone spot my error?

 NSDateFormatter *df = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
 [df setDateFormat:@"dd/MM/YY hh:mm a"];
 NSDate* b = [[NSDate alloc] init];
 NSString* f = [df stringFromDate:b]; // has the current date and time
 NSDate* dt =[df dateFromString:f];  // 12/25/2011 - where does it get this?

Answer 1

Try to use the following:

[df setDateFormat:@"dd/MM/yyyy hh:mma"]; // or @"dd/MM/yy hh:mma"

This is the result:

Printing description of b:
2012-06-12 13:06:16 +0000
Printing description of dt:
2012-06-12 13:06:00 +0000

If you need more info I suggest to read date-formatter-examples.

If you don’t use ARC make attention to memory leaks. For example, use [NSDate date] instead of [[NSDate alloc] init].

Hope that helps.