NSDateFormatter with RSS pubDate - objective-c

Question

I have some problems with converting a rss pubdate string into a NSDate object.
<pubDate>Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:26:08 +0200</pubDate>
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:#"EEE, d MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss Z"];
NSDate *date = [dateFormatter dateFromString:currentDate];
NSLog(#"DateObject : '%#'", date);
[dateFormatter release];
I always get
[44157:10d03] DateObject : '(null)'

Answer 1

You'll need:
dd instead of d, since the day is zero-padded
ZZ instead of Z, since it doesn't include the timezone abbreviated name
More info: http://unicode.org/reports/tr35/tr35-4.html#Date_Format_Patterns
When I run this:
int main (int argc, const char * argv[]) {
NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
NSString *str = #"Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:26:08 +0200";
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:#"EEE, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss ZZ"];
NSDate *date = [dateFormatter dateFromString:str];
NSLog(#"DateObject : %#", date);
[dateFormatter release];
[pool drain];
return 0;
}
I get this:
EmptyFoundation[19926:407] DateObject : 2011-09-09 13:26:08 +0000

Answer 2

First you could try the following code:
NSString *str = #"Mon, 19 Oct 2015 14:27:28 +0800";
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:#"EEE, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss ZZ"];
NSDate *date = [dateFormatter dateFromString:str];
NSLog(#"DateObject : %#", date);
However, If your DateObject is still null , your locale is not correctly located "en_US_POSIX" format. You need change your locale.
NSString *str = #"Mon, 19 Oct 2015 14:27:28 +0800";
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:#"EEE, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss ZZ"];
NSLocale *enUSPOSIXLocale = [[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:#"en_US_POSIX"];
[dateFormatter setLocale:enUSPOSIXLocale];
NSDate *date = [dateFormatter dateFromString:str];
NSLog(#"DateObject : %#", date);
The result is:
DateObject : 2015-10-19 06:27:28 +0000

Answer 3

Use :
NSArray *array=[string componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]];
to split the pubDate by whitespaces and newline and then get every element you want to show by using the indexes of the array.

Answer 4

I use this code to format Wordpress RSS feed dates:
+ (NSDate *)parseWordpressDate:(NSString *)dataWp {
NSArray *array=[dataWp componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceCharacterSet]];
//Tue, 04 Mar 2014 11:00:36 +0000
//day = index 1, month = 2, year = 3
NSString *yyear = [array objectAtIndex:3];
NSString *mmonth = [array objectAtIndex:2];
NSString *dday = [array objectAtIndex:1];
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatterGMTAware = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatterGMTAware setDateFormat:#"yyyy-MMM-dd"];
NSString *dateString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#-%#-%#",yyear,mmonth,dday];
NSDate *data = [dateFormatterGMTAware dateFromString:dateString];
return data;
}