Comparing NSDate to [NSDate date] Fastest Way? - iphone

Question

I have a core data table view and I am comparing dates. The method which I currently use is: if ([todayDate compare: [NSDate date]]==NSOrderedAscending) . This works perfectly but slow. I do not need to know the difference in time though. Any help is much appreciated!

Answer 1

I really think, that NSDates method isEqualToDate: is what you are searching for. Seems to me to be the Apple-way to answer your question:
NSDate *date1 = ...;
NSDate *date2 = ...;
BOOL datesAreEqual = [date1 isEqualToDate:date2];
For more information visit https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes/nsdate_Class/Reference/Reference.html

Answer 2

One option could be to not actually create a new NSDate object but use the time interval for comparison. Don't know about the performance, but it might be worth a try.
if ([todayDate timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate] > [NSDate timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate]) {
...
}

Answer 3

You should remember the current date or current timestamp in a local variable:
NSTimeInterval current = [NSDate timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate];
And use this value later for all your comparisons:
myTimestamp = [myDate timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate]
if (myTimestamp == current) {
return NSOrderedSame;
} else if (myTimestamp > current) {
return NSOrderedDescending;
} else {
return NSOrderedAscending;
}
Or a faster way, using C functions:
// Get the current calendar time as a time_t object.
time_t time ( time_t * timer );
// Return difference between two times
double difftime ( time_t time2, time_t time1 );

Answer 4

I've not measured it, but you may want to try:
NSTimeInterval i = [todayDate timeIntervalSinceNow];
where the result (i) may be positive or negative.
You might also try CFDateCompare.
Or you might want to consider another way to represent a point in time in your database -- such as a CFTimeInterval (a double representing the number of seconds from a common reference time).