NSDate formatting it to include Date and Time - objective-c

Question

I have two strings.
NSString *dateof = #"Mon May 21";
NSString *timeof = #"01.00 pm from 11.50 pm"; // 01.00 pm is the start time and 11.50 pm is the end time
I need to save these as NSDates, in the format , so that it will be 2012-05-21 13:00:00 +0000.
My approach so far has been:
NSDate *currentTime = [NSDate date];
NSCalendar *cal = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];
NSDateComponents
*currentDateComps = [cal components:NSYearCalendarUnit|NSMonthCalendarUnit|NSDayCalendarUnit
fromDate:currentTime];
NSString *startDateStringWithYear = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%# %d", startDateString, currentDateComps.year];
NSString *endDateStringWithYear = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%# %d", endDateString, currentDateComps.year];
NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[formatter setDateFormat:#"EEE MM dd yyyy"];
[formatter setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone systemTimeZone]];
NSDate *startDate = [formatter dateFromString:startDateStringWithYear];
NSArray *timeDurationStringWords = [timeof componentsSeparatedByString:#" "];
// Calculate NSDate's for the start time for today:
NSString *startTimeString = [timeDurationStringWords objectAtIndex:0];
currentDateComps.hour = [[startTimeString substringToIndex:2] intValue];
currentDateComps.minute = [[startTimeString substringFromIndex:3] intValue];
if ([[timeDurationStringWords objectAtIndex:1] isEqualToString:#"pm"])
{
currentDateComps.hour += 12;
}
NSDate *startTime = [cal dateFromComponents:currentDateComps];
When I debug the code, startTime prints as 2012-05-29 07:30:00 +0000 which is incorrect (both the day and time are incorrect). I think this is because of the GMT time.
I need the date and time to be 2012-05-21 13:00:00 +0000.

Answer 1

This will do it. As far as the local/GMT, this will give you a NSDate that contains the local time but the debugger will show always show it in GMT. You will need to format it (using a NSDateFormatter) into the format that you want if you are going to show it to the user, in which case it will be in local time.
NSString *dateof = #"Mon May 21";
NSString *timeof = #"01.00 pm from 11.50 pm";
NSDate *today = [NSDate date];
// Start time will be array index 0, end time will be index 1:
NSArray *times = [timeof componentsSeparatedByString:#" from "];
NSCalendar *cal = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];
NSDateComponents *yearComp = [cal components:NSYearCalendarUnit fromDate:today];
// Append the year and the time to the dateof string to get a string like #"Mon May 21 2012 01.00 pm":
NSString *start = [dateof stringByAppendingFormat:#" %d %#", yearComp.year, [times objectAtIndex:0]];
NSString *end = [dateof stringByAppendingFormat:#" %d %#", yearComp.year, [times objectAtIndex:1]];
// Make a date formatter that recognizes the above date/time:
NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[formatter setDateFormat:#"EEE MMM dd yyyy hh.mm a"];
// Convert the strings to dates:
NSDate *startDate = [formatter dateFromString:start];
NSDate *endDate = [formatter dateFromString:end];

Answer 2

NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[formatter setDateFormat:#"yyyy-MM-dd 'at' HH:mm"];
NSString *str = [formatter stringFromDate:[NSDate date]];
NSLog(#"str=%#",str);
NSDate *dt = [NSDate date];
dt = [formatter dateFromString:str];
NSLog(#"dt=%#",dt);
Output:
str=2012-05-29 at 10:36
dt=2012-05-29 05:06:00 +0000