Question

What is wrong with this code?

    NSString *strTest = @"Sun Apr 12 23:29:24 +0000 2009";
    NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"MM/dd/yy"];
    NSDate *createdAtFormatted = [dateFormatter dateFromString:strTest];
    self.createdAt.text = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:createdAtFormatted];

self.createdAt is a UILabel and it stays empty. Why?

When trying to use dateWithNaturalLanguageString, I get:

Answer 1

Your date formatter date format does not match the date format from the strTest string.

NSString *strTest = @"Sun Apr 12 23:29:24 +0000 2009";
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
NSLocale *loc = [[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"en_US"]; // so the formatter recognizes english names for months and days
[dateFormatter setLocale:loc];
[loc release]; // remove if using ARC
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"EEE MMM d HH:mm:ss ZZZZ yyyy"];
NSDate *createdAtFormatted = [dateFormatter dateFromString:strTest];
NSLog(@"got %@", createdAtFormatted);

The formatter specifiers can be found here.