From string with locale to date on iphone sdk - iphone

Question

I trying to find a way to convert a string into a date with a given locale identifier.
I have for example an italian date (locale: it_IT) I want to convert into a valid date object.
NSDate *GLDateWithString(NSString *string, NSString *localeIdentifier) {
[NSDateFormatter setDefaultFormatterBehavior:NSDateFormatterBehavior10_4];
NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
NSLocale *locale = [[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:localeIdentifier];
[formatter setLocale:locale];
[locale release];
NSDate *date = [formatter dateFromString:string];
[formatter release];
return date;
}
this code does not work, the date is nil.
I can't figure out how I should use the locale setting for my purpose.

Answer 1

The solution is to use getObjectValue:forString:range:error: method of NSDateFormatter and set the correct date and time style ad follow:
- (NSDate *)dateWithString:(NSString *)string locale:(NSString *)localeIdentifier {
NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[formatter setTimeStyle:NSDateFormatterNoStyle];
[formatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterShortStyle];
NSLocale *locale = [[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:localeIdentifier];
[formatter setLocale:locale];
[locale release];
NSDate *date = nil;
NSRange range = NSMakeRange(0, [string length]);
NSError *error = nil;
BOOL converted = NO;
converted = [formatter getObjectValue:&date forString:string range:&range error:&error];
[formatter release];
return converted? date : nil;
}
example:
NSString *italianDate = #"30/10/2010";
NSString *italianLocale = #"it_IT";
NSDate *date = [myCustomFormatter dateWithString:italianDate locale:italianLocale];

Answer 2

I struggled with German formats as well sometime ago and solved the problem by supplying my own formatting string:
[formatter setDateFormat:#"dd.MMM.yyyy HH:mm:ss"];
Then:
[dateFormatter dateFromString:#"01.Dez.2010 15:03:00"];
will get a correct NSDate.