Current date brings back time as well - swift

Question

I'm trying to get the date only, I wrote this:
func getCurrentDate() -> Date {
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd.MM.yyyy"
let result = dateFormatter.string(from: date)
print(result)
let date = dateFormatter.date(from: result)
return date!
}
printing 'result' I get:
12.07.2019
which is what I need, but converting it to Date type and printing it results in:
2019-07-11 21:00:00 +0000
Why does that happen and how can I fix it ?

Answer 1

Date was very unfortunately named. It has nothing to do with dates. It represents an instant in time. An instant that all observers (ignoring details like Relativity) would agree on. It isn't "a day on the calendar." It's a point in time, independent of any calendar.
The fact that it prints out in a "calendar-like" way is just a convenience for debugging.
If you want "a specific day on a calendar" then the tools you want is DateComponents and Calendar, not Date:
func currentDay() -> DateComponents {
return Calendar.current.dateComponents([.year, .month, .day], from: Date())
}
Keep in mind that the user's current calendar may not be Gregorian. If you require the Gregorian calendar, you need to say so:
func currentDay() -> DateComponents {
return Calendar(identifier: .gregorian).dateComponents([.year, .month, .day],
from: Date())
}
The Gregorian calendar is the one where the current year is 2019. In the Hebrew calendar, it's 5779. In the Buddhist calendar, it's 2562. In the Islamic calendar, it's 1440. There is no one "correct" calendar, which is why you need to provide one.
Reading your comments, it's possible you mean "the start of 'today' using the current calendar." If that's what you want, then you would use this:
func currentDay() -> Date {
return Calendar.current.startOfDay(for: Date())
}
(Or use the Gregorian calendar if needed, though I don't believe any supported calendar disagrees about what the start of the day is.)