Installation Date Format for NSDateFormatter

Question

I am trying to set the date format for something like "2011-04-21 03: 31: 37.310396". I think that I will not get fractional seconds. I look at http://unicode.org/reports/tr35/tr35-10.html#Date_Format_Patterns for recommendations on defining it, and I think my problem is in the format itself.

NSDateFormatter* dateFormatter = [[[NSDateFormatter alloc] init] autorelease]; dateFormatter.dateFormat = @"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ssSSSSSS"; NSDate* serverDate = [dateFormatter dateFromString:stringFormOfDate]; 

reference

Answer 1

to try

 NSDateFormatter* dateFormatter = [[[NSDateFormatter alloc] init] autorelease]; dateFormatter.dateFormat = @"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSSSSS"; NSDate* serverDate = [dateFormatter dateFromString:@"2011-04-21 03:31:37.310396"]; NSLog(@"%@", serverDate); 

I think you probably forgot the point

Answer 2

According to Zaph's comment in another answer: the maximum number S is 3. Any others just produce zeros.

eg.

 dateFormatter.dateFormat = @"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSSSSS"; // Last 3 'S' ignored. Then @"2011-04-21 03:31:37.311396" will produce 2011-04-21 03:31:37.311000 

To maintain full microsecond accuracy, try this magic:

 -(NSDate *)_dateFromUtcString:(NSString *)utcString{ if(!utcString){ return nil; } static NSDateFormatter *df = nil; if (df == nil) { df = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init]; [df setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"]; [df setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone timeZoneWithAbbreviation:@"UTC"]]; } NSArray* parts = [utcString componentsSeparatedByString:@"."]; NSDate *utcDate = [df dateFromString:parts[0]]; if(parts.count > 1){ double microseconds = [parts[1] doubleValue]; utcDate = [utcDate dateByAddingTimeInterval:microseconds / 1000000]; } return utcDate; } 

Now NSString "2011-04-21 03: 31: 37.310396" will fully analyze NSDate 2011-04-21 03: 31: 37.310396