Get the Exact Difference Between 2 Dates for a Single Nsdatecomponent

How can I calculate the difference between two dates?

NSDate *date1 = [NSDate dateWithString:@"2010-01-01 00:00:00 +0000"];
NSDate *date2 = [NSDate dateWithString:@"2010-02-03 00:00:00 +0000"];

NSTimeInterval secondsBetween = [date2 timeIntervalSinceDate:date1];

int numberOfDays = secondsBetween / 86400;

NSLog(@"There are %d days in between the two dates.", numberOfDays);

EDIT:

Remember, NSDate objects represent exact moments of time, they do not have any associated time-zone information. When you convert a string to a date using e.g. an NSDateFormatter, the NSDateFormatter converts the time from the configured timezone. Therefore, the number of seconds between two NSDate objects will always be time-zone-agnostic.

Furthermore, this documentation specifies that Cocoa's implementation of time does not account for leap seconds, so if you require such accuracy, you will need to roll your own implementation.

Getting the difference between two Dates (months/days/hours/minutes/seconds) in Swift

Xcode 8.3 • Swift 3.1 or later

You can use Calendar to help you create an extension to do your date calculations as follow:

extension Date {
    /// Returns the amount of years from another date
    func years(from date: Date) -> Int {
        return Calendar.current.dateComponents([.year], from: date, to: self).year ?? 0
    }
    /// Returns the amount of months from another date
    func months(from date: Date) -> Int {
        return Calendar.current.dateComponents([.month], from: date, to: self).month ?? 0
    }
    /// Returns the amount of weeks from another date
    func weeks(from date: Date) -> Int {
        return Calendar.current.dateComponents([.weekOfMonth], from: date, to: self).weekOfMonth ?? 0
    }
    /// Returns the amount of days from another date
    func days(from date: Date) -> Int {
        return Calendar.current.dateComponents([.day], from: date, to: self).day ?? 0
    }
    /// Returns the amount of hours from another date
    func hours(from date: Date) -> Int {
        return Calendar.current.dateComponents([.hour], from: date, to: self).hour ?? 0
    }
    /// Returns the amount of minutes from another date
    func minutes(from date: Date) -> Int {
        return Calendar.current.dateComponents([.minute], from: date, to: self).minute ?? 0
    }
    /// Returns the amount of seconds from another date
    func seconds(from date: Date) -> Int {
        return Calendar.current.dateComponents([.second], from: date, to: self).second ?? 0
    }
    /// Returns the a custom time interval description from another date
    func offset(from date: Date) -> String {
        if years(from: date)   > 0 { return "\(years(from: date))y"   }
        if months(from: date)  > 0 { return "\(months(from: date))M"  }
        if weeks(from: date)   > 0 { return "\(weeks(from: date))w"   }
        if days(from: date)    > 0 { return "\(days(from: date))d"    }
        if hours(from: date)   > 0 { return "\(hours(from: date))h"   }
        if minutes(from: date) > 0 { return "\(minutes(from: date))m" }
        if seconds(from: date) > 0 { return "\(seconds(from: date))s" }
        return ""
    }
}

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Using Date Components Formatter

let dateComponentsFormatter = DateComponentsFormatter()
dateComponentsFormatter.allowedUnits = [.second, .minute, .hour, .day, .weekOfMonth, .month, .year]
dateComponentsFormatter.maximumUnitCount = 1
dateComponentsFormatter.unitsStyle = .full
dateComponentsFormatter.string(from: Date(), to: Date(timeIntervalSinceNow: 4000000))  // "1 month"

---

let date1 = DateComponents(calendar: .current, year: 2014, month: 11, day: 28, hour: 5, minute: 9).date!
let date2 = DateComponents(calendar: .current, year: 2015, month: 8, day: 28, hour: 5, minute: 9).date!

let years = date2.years(from: date1)     // 0
let months = date2.months(from: date1)   // 9
let weeks = date2.weeks(from: date1)     // 39
let days = date2.days(from: date1)       // 273
let hours = date2.hours(from: date1)     // 6,553
let minutes = date2.minutes(from: date1) // 393,180
let seconds = date2.seconds(from: date1) // 23,590,800

let timeOffset = date2.offset(from: date1) // "9M"

let date3 = DateComponents(calendar: .current, year: 2014, month: 11, day: 28, hour: 5, minute: 9).date!
let date4 = DateComponents(calendar: .current, year: 2015, month: 11, day: 28, hour: 5, minute: 9).date!

let timeOffset2 = date4.offset(from: date3) // "1y"

let date5 = DateComponents(calendar: .current, year: 2017, month: 4, day: 28).date!
let now = Date()
let timeOffset3 = now.offset(from: date5) // "1w"

Swift days between two NSDates

You have to consider the time difference as well. For example if you compare the dates 2015-01-01 10:00 and 2015-01-02 09:00, days between those dates will return as 0 (zero) since the difference between those dates is less than 24 hours (it's 23 hours).

If your purpose is to get the exact day number between two dates, you can work around this issue like this:

// Assuming that firstDate and secondDate are defined
// ...

let calendar = NSCalendar.currentCalendar()

// Replace the hour (time) of both dates with 00:00
let date1 = calendar.startOfDayForDate(firstDate)
let date2 = calendar.startOfDayForDate(secondDate)

let flags = NSCalendarUnit.Day
let components = calendar.components(flags, fromDate: date1, toDate: date2, options: [])

components.day  // This will return the number of day(s) between dates

Swift 3 and Swift 4 Version

let calendar = Calendar.current

// Replace the hour (time) of both dates with 00:00
let date1 = calendar.startOfDay(for: firstDate)
let date2 = calendar.startOfDay(for: secondDate)

let components = calendar.dateComponents([.day], from: date1, to: date2)

Number of days between two NSDates

Here's an implementation I used to determine the number of calendar days between two dates:

+ (NSInteger)daysBetweenDate:(NSDate*)fromDateTime andDate:(NSDate*)toDateTime
{
    NSDate *fromDate;
    NSDate *toDate;

    NSCalendar *calendar = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];

    [calendar rangeOfUnit:NSCalendarUnitDay startDate:&fromDate
        interval:NULL forDate:fromDateTime];
    [calendar rangeOfUnit:NSCalendarUnitDay startDate:&toDate
        interval:NULL forDate:toDateTime];

    NSDateComponents *difference = [calendar components:NSCalendarUnitDay
        fromDate:fromDate toDate:toDate options:0];

    return [difference day];
}

EDIT:

Fantastic solution above, here's Swift version below as an extension on NSDate:

extension NSDate {
  func numberOfDaysUntilDateTime(toDateTime: NSDate, inTimeZone timeZone: NSTimeZone? = nil) -> Int {
    let calendar = NSCalendar.currentCalendar()
    if let timeZone = timeZone {
      calendar.timeZone = timeZone
    }

    var fromDate: NSDate?, toDate: NSDate?

    calendar.rangeOfUnit(.Day, startDate: &fromDate, interval: nil, forDate: self)
    calendar.rangeOfUnit(.Day, startDate: &toDate, interval: nil, forDate: toDateTime)

    let difference = calendar.components(.Day, fromDate: fromDate!, toDate: toDate!, options: [])
    return difference.day
  }
}

A bit of force unwrapping going on which you may want to remove depending on your use case.

The above solution also works for time zones other than the current time zone, perfect for an app that shows information about places all around the world.

How to calculate days difference between two NSDate objects in different time zones?

This is an odd case. You're looking for the difference in calendar dates between two Dates when those dates are evaluated in a specific time zone.

I did some playing, and came up with code that works for dates that fall in the same year:

let date = Date()

guard let nycTimeZone = TimeZone(abbreviation: "EST"),
  let nzTimeZone = TimeZone(abbreviation: "NZDT") else {
    fatalError()
}
var nycCalendar = Calendar(identifier: .gregorian)
nycCalendar.timeZone = nycTimeZone
var nzCalendar = Calendar(identifier: .gregorian)
nzCalendar.timeZone = nzTimeZone

let now = Date()

let nycDayOfYear = nycCalendar.ordinality(of: .day, in: .year, for: now)

var nzDayOfYear = nzCalendar.ordinality(of: .day, in: .year, for: now)

I'm using New York and Aukland, NZ as my time zones because as of the time of this writing, those zones are on different dates.

As of now (~12:00 PM on Feb 11, 2017 in US Eastern Standard Time (UTC - 5) the code above gives

nycDayOfYear = 42

and

nzDayOfYear = 43

It would take some work to make that calculation work across year boundaries.

Curiously, the following code:

var nzDayOfEra = nzCalendar.ordinality(of: .day, in: .era, for: now)
let nycDayOfEra = nycCalendar.ordinality(of: .day, in: .era, for: now)

Gives the same value for both NZ and NYC. I'm not sure why.

EDIT:

Ok, I did some experimenting and got code that works. What I do is to convert both dates to month/day/year date components using a calendar set to the local time zone for each time. Then I use a method dateComponents(_:from:to:) to calculate the difference between those 2 DateComponents, in days:

import UIKit

let date = Date()

guard let nycTimeZone = TimeZone(abbreviation: "EST"),
  let nzTimeZone = TimeZone(abbreviation: "NZDT") else {
    fatalError()
}
var nycCalendar = Calendar(identifier: .gregorian)
nycCalendar.timeZone = nycTimeZone
var nzCalendar = Calendar(identifier: .gregorian)
nzCalendar.timeZone = nzTimeZone

let now = Date()

let nycDateComponents = nycCalendar.dateComponents([.month, .day, .year], from: now)
let nzDateComponents = nzCalendar.dateComponents([.month, .day, .year], from: now)

let difference = Calendar.current.dateComponents([.day],
  from: nycDateComponents,
    to: nzDateComponents)

let daysDifference = difference.days

As of this writing that gives a daysDifference of 1. Since we're using the dateComponents(_:from:to:) function, it takes care of the math to calculate the number of days difference between the 2 month/day/year DateComponents.

Find difference in seconds between NSDates as integer using Swift

Your attempt to calculate elapsedTime is incorrect. In Swift 3, it would be:

let elapsed = Date().timeIntervalSince(timeAtPress)

Note the () after the Date reference. The Date() instantiates a new date object, and then timeIntervalSince returns the time difference between that and timeAtPress. That will return a floating point value (technically, a TimeInterval).

If you want that as truncated to a Int value, you can just use:

let duration = Int(elapsed)

And, BTW, your definition of the timeAtPress variable doesn't need to instantiate a Date object. I presume you intended:

var timeAtPress: Date!

That defines the variable as a Date variable (an implicitly unwrapped one), but you'd presumably defer the actual instantiation of that variable until pressed is called.

---

Alternatively, I often use CFAbsoluteTimeGetCurrent(), e.g.,

var start: CFAbsoluteTime!

And when I want to set startTime, I do the following:

start = CFAbsoluteTimeGetCurrent()

And when I want to calculate the number of seconds elapsed, I do the following:

let elapsed = CFAbsoluteTimeGetCurrent() - start

---

It's worth noting that the CFAbsoluteTimeGetCurrent documentation warns us:

Repeated calls to this function do not guarantee monotonically increasing results. The system time may decrease due to synchronization with external time references or due to an explicit user change of the clock.

This means that if you're unfortunate enough to measure elapsed time when one of these adjustments take place, you can end up with incorrect elapsed time calculation. This is true for NSDate/Date calculations too. It's safest to use a mach_absolute_time based calculation (most easily done with CACurrentMediaTime):

let start = CACurrentMediaTime()

and

let elapsed = CACurrentMediaTime() - start

This uses mach_absolute_time, but avoids some of its complexities outlined in Technical Q&A QA1398.

Remember, though, that CACurrentMediaTime/mach_absolute_time will be reset when the device is rebooted. So, bottom line, if you need accurate elapsed time calculations while an app is running, use CACurrentMediaTime. But if you're going to save this start time in persistent storage which you might recall when the app is restarted at some future date, then you have to use Date or CFAbsoluteTimeGetCurrent, and just live with any inaccuracies that may entail.

Get difference between two dates?

NSDateComponentsFormatter can do that

NSTimeInterval secondsBetween = [date2 timeIntervalSinceDate:date1];
NSDateComponentsFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateComponentsFormatter alloc] init];
formatter.allowedUnits = NSCalendarUnitDay | NSCalendarUnitHour | NSCalendarUnitMinute;
formatter.unitsStyle = NSDateComponentsFormatterUnitsStyleFull;
NSLog(@"%@", [formatter stringFromTimeInterval:secondsBetween]);

See NSDateComponentsFormatterUnitsStyle for other styles.

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