Upper and lower limit on UIDatePicker - iphone

Question

So a few weeks ago I asked for a tip on how to actually lock a specific range of dates on UIDatePicker, instead of just graying them. It worked fine.
But now I've reached a similar situation, and can't get it to work. Now I have a minimum AND a maximum date, i.e., I only want to allow a small (or not) interval of dates.
Here's what I'm trying to do: (I added a target on the datepicker)
-(void) disableDate {
if ([datePicker.date compare:[NSDate date]] == NSOrderedDescending || [datePicker.date compare:datePicker.minimumDate] == NSOrderedAscending) {
datePicker.date = [NSDate date];
[datePicker reloadInputViews];
}
}
Some notes:
1) It's working only for the first time I change datepicker's date. The second time (and on) it just doesn't work anymore - datepicker won't scroll back to current date.
2) Note 1) is happening for some reason I don't know, cause disableDate is being called, BUT the app NEVER goes into the "if", like the conditions I set are never being satisfied.
In other words: I don't know why it's scrolling once since it never goes into the if statement, and I also don't know WHY it never goes into the if statement!
Any ideas here?
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: The minimum.date and maximum.date are set.

Answer 1

Well, if you like the user don't be able to select dates without your range, use this:
UIDatePicker *datePicker = [[UIDatePicker alloc] init];
datePicker.datePickerMode = UIDatePickerModeDate;
datePicker.minimumDate=_minDate;
datePicker.maximumDate=_maxDate;
Where _minDate and _maxDate are defined:
NSDateComponents* components=[[NSDateComponents alloc] init];
[components setYear:1900];
_minDate=[[NSCalendar currentCalendar] dateFromComponents:components];
_maxDate=[NSDate date];
And bingo, the limits are defined.
I hope this help you.

Answer 2

Ok, so I finally solved it. I'll post here how I did it in case someone else struggles with this weird datepickers behaviour.
So, what's happening here is that the maximum date and minimum date properties also lock the date within your limit range. But they do that without updating the datepicker view. Plus, the datepicker does that before its value actually change so when your app reaches the if inside the disableDate method, its date is already set back to current date (or nearest date or something like that - but a valid date) and the if will be skipped.
To solve that I thought of using setDate:animated: in a redundant way, like:
[myDatePicker setDate:myDatePicker.date animated: YES]
But then the datepicker wouldn't do anything, so I created a NSDate with datepicker.date plus 1 second, and then set the new date. In other words:
- (void) disableDate {
NSDate * oneSecondAfterPickersDate = [datePicker.date dateByAddingTimeInterval:1] ;
if ( [datePicker.date compare:datePicker.minimumDate] == NSOrderedSame ) {
datePicker.date = oneSecondAfterPickersDate ;
}
else if ( [datePicker.date compare:datePicker.maximumDate] == NSOrderedSame ) {
datePicker.date = oneSecondAfterPickersDate ;
}
}
Hope it helps someone :)
EDIT: forgot to mention -> I'm using UIControlEventValueChanged to trigger the method.