Unable to convert string date with GMT for Nsdate

Question

I have a string like a below example

2013-12-28T8:15:00+03:00

but i want to convert to NSDate with same format here is my code

NSDateFormatter *dateFormatterInBoundSegment = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];

[dateFormatterInBoundSegment setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssz"];

[dateFormatterInBoundSegment setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone timeZoneWithAbbreviation:@"UTC"]];

NSDate *dateInboundSegment = [dateFormatterInBoundSegment dateFromString:@"2013-12-28T8:15:00+03:00"];

NSLog(@"Formatted date %@",dateInboundSegment); 

And result printed like this

Formatted date 2013-12-28 05:15:00 +0000

I want to convert to nsdate with GMT +3 like string ,result should be like this

2013-12-28T8:15:00+03:00

Answer 1

NSDate doesn't store the time zone, NSDate is just a number that represents a date. When you print it on the screen, it's just formatted like that, but your date and that one are the same.

This:

2013-12-28 05:15:00 +0000

and this:

2013-12-28T8:15:00+03:00

Represent the same date, just printed in a different way.

When you do this: NSLog(@"Formatted date %@",dateInboundSegment); You are not specifying how the date has to be formatted to string, so it's using a default mode.

If you want to print the NSDate with the proper timezone, you need to create a string with a formatter and set the timezone.

Answer 2

You are printing the NSDate value, not the formatted string. NSDate doesn't hold any format, and it's printed using the default format.

In order to print a string with your desired format, you must call:

[dateFormatterInBoundSegment stringFromDate:myDate];