Convert NSString to NSDate not correct - iphone

Question

in my iPhone application I need to convert NSString to NSDate with formaT. Here is my code:
+(NSDate*)dateFromJsonString:(NSString*)string{
NSDateFormatter *dateFormat = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormat setDateFormat:#"yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss'"];
NSLog(#"%#", [dateFormat dateFromString:string]);
return [dateFormat dateFromString:string];
}
If parameter "string" is 2013-05-30T15:53:02 after converting - [dateFormat dateFromString:string] it becomes 2013-05-30 12:53:02 +0000 , so there is a difference in 3 hours. How can I fix it?

Answer 1

You need to set the correct time zone. Here is a sample, correct it to the time zone of your server:
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
dateFormatter.timeZone = [NSTimeZone timeZoneWithAbbreviation:#"UTC"];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:#"yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss'"];
return [dateFormatter dateFromString:dict[#"completed_at"]];
EDIT: You can check the available time zones with a class method on NSTimeZone:
+ (NSArray *)knownTimeZoneNames
Just output it to the console, and choose the time zone that corresponds to the server one.
EDIT 2: Probably this is more useful:
+ (NSDictionary *)abbreviationDictionary
Choose your time zone and than just change the #"UTC" in the code above with the desired abbreviation.

Answer 2

Try this dateFormat. Since timezone is not given in dateString, dateFormatter assumes it to be local timezone. If you know the timezone set it to formatter.
[dateFormat setDateFormat:#"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss"];
Check this answer for more details.

Answer 3

This is TimeZone issue so use this code to fix this problem :
+(NSDate*)dateFromJsonString:(NSString*)string
{
NSLocale *locale = [[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:#"en-US"];
NSDateFormatter *dateFormat = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormat setDateFormat:#"yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss'"];
[dateFormat setLocale:locale];
[dateFormat setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone systemTimeZone]];
NSLog(#"%#", [dateFormat dateFromString:string]);
return [dateFormat dateFromString:string];
}
Hope it helps you.

Answer 4

You can use the following code to set timezone.
[dateFormatter setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone systemTimeZone]];
But before you try that, i should tell you that if you are logging the date, it will show it in UTC format and not in the timezone of your computer. So dont check your date by printing it. So try converting the date to string and printing it to check if the date is correct or not.
Try logging NSLog(#"%#",[dateFormatter stringFromDate:date]); first

Answer 5

You just need to set current time zone for date formatter. Because of it, you got some time difference. Use below code..
+(NSDate*)dateFromJsonString:(NSString*)string
{
NSDateFormatter *inputFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[inputFormatter setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone defaultTimeZone]];
[inputFormatter setDateFormat:#"YYYY-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss"];
NSDate *xExpDate = [inputFormatter dateFromString:string];
return xExpDate;
}