Is there a date only (no time) class in Swift? - swift

Question

Is there a date-only (no time) class in Swift? (or Foundation classes)
(as an aside if there is not but there is a well-known/popular open-source library that implements this if you could mention this)

Answer 1

There isn't a date only class in Foundation, but you can strip the time off from a Date object, by using Calendar. In Swift 4:
func stripTime(from originalDate: Date) -> Date {
let components = Calendar.current.dateComponents([.year, .month, .day], from: originalDate)
let date = Calendar.current.date(from: components)
return date!
}
Or as an extension:
extension Date {
func stripTime() -> Date {
let components = Calendar.current.dateComponents([.year, .month, .day], from: self)
let date = Calendar.current.date(from: components)
return date!
}
}

Answer 2

There is no date only class that's part of the Foundation framework.
This is a quick way to get a date only representation of an NSDate object:
let now = NSDate()
let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
dateFormatter.timeStyle = NSDateFormatterStyle.NoStyle
dateFormatter.dateStyle = NSDateFormatterStyle.MediumStyle
print(dateFormatter.stringFromDate(now)) // Mar 3, 2016
NSDate's always have times because a date is a single point in time. If you're so inclined you can create a date without a time component but it usually defaults to 12AM:
let dateString = "2016-03-03"
let dateFromStringFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
dateFromStringFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd"
let dateFromString = dateFromStringFormatter.dateFromString(dateString)
// dateFromString shows "Mar 3, 2016, 12:00 AM"
For Swift 3.0+
let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd"
// optional
let date = dateFormatter.date(from: "2016-03-03") // Mar 3, 2015 at 12:00 AM

Answer 3

Swift 3.0
let date = Date()
let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.timeStyle = DateFormatter.Style.none
dateFormatter.dateStyle = DateFormatter.Style.short
dateFormatter.string(from: date) // 12/15/16

Answer 4

If you want to get a Date object in Swift 4, like when you are trying to store a Date object in core data, you can use this method.
private func getDate() -> Date {
let today = Date()
let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.timeStyle = DateFormatter.Style.none
dateFormatter .dateStyle = DateFormatter.Style.short
let dateAsString = dateFormatter.string(from: today)
return dateFormatter.date(from: dateAsString)!
}
based on #John R Perry's answer.

Answer 5

There is no date only (no time) type in the Swift Standard library or Foundation (as of iOS 13).
Here is a type CalendarDate that you can use to represent a date as year, month, day in Swift:
Also available via Swift Package Manager here: CalendarDate
import Foundation
/**
CalendarDate is a Swift type that represents a Date as year, month and day value.
Includes support for formatting as a ISO 8601 string ('yyyy-mm-dd') and JSON coding.
*/
public struct CalendarDate: Equatable, Hashable {
public let year, month, day: Int
public static var today: CalendarDate {
CalendarDate(date: Date())
}
public init(year: Int, month: Int, day: Int) {
self.year = year
self.month = month
self.day = day
}
public init(date: Date) {
let calendar = Calendar.current
self.year = calendar.component(.year, from: date)
self.month = calendar.component(.month, from: date)
self.day = calendar.component(.day, from: date)
}
public var date: Date {
DateComponents(calendar: Calendar.current, year: self.year, month: self.month, day: self.day).date!
}
}
extension CalendarDate: LosslessStringConvertible {
public init?(_ description: String) {
if let date = Self.formatter.date(from: description) {
self.init(date: date)
} else {
return nil
}
}
public var description: String {
Self.formatter.string(from: self.date)
}
private static let formatter: DateFormatter = {
let formatter = DateFormatter()
formatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd"
return formatter
}()
}
extension CalendarDate: Codable {
public init(from decoder: Decoder) throws {
let container = try decoder.singleValueContainer()
let string = try container.decode(String.self)
guard let value = CalendarDate(string) else {
throw DecodingError.dataCorruptedError(
in: container,
debugDescription: "Not a valid calendar date: \"\(string)\""
)
}
self = value
}
public func encode(to encoder: Encoder) throws {
var container = encoder.singleValueContainer()
try container.encode(self.description)
}
}

Answer 6

I used a solution from this thread (which worked fine) and later found out that swift provides this:
Locale.current.calendar.startOfDay(for: Date()) // "Sep 10, 2022 at 12:00 AM"
It seems to do the same as the Date extension:
Date().stripTime() // "Sep 10, 2022 at 12:00 AM"

Answer 7

I would say that string of date value specified like "YYYY-MM-DD" + NSCalendar.Identifier could represent a date.
Having this you will be able to convert this date to any other calendar.

Answer 8

I know there are some good answers already.. just wanted to pass this one in here, which prints "true", so if you use the components or just set the time to 00:00:00 is basically the same...
let startComp = Calendar.current.dateComponents([.year, .month, .day], from: Date())
let first = Calendar.current.date(from: startComp)!
print(first == Calendar.current.date(bySettingHour: 0, minute: 0, second: 0, of: Date()))
Hope this helps someone :)

Answer 9

As mentioned in other answers, there is no Date only type. If your goal is to display the current date which respects the locale from the user, this is the way to go:
//Returns 12/23/2022
DateFormatter.localizedString(from: Date.now, dateStyle: .short, timeStyle: .none)
//Returns 23 Dec 2022
DateFormatter.localizedString(from: Date.now, dateStyle: .medium, timeStyle: .none)