NSDateFormatter returns nil

Question

I'm trying to parse a date passed in the format:

"2014-03-26T05:07:42.14286Z"

My NSDateFormatter code looks like this

NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'SS'Z'"];
self.createdAt = [dateFormatter dateFromString:@""2014-03-26T05:07:42.14286Z""];

But it just returns nil. I've tried multiple variations with and without the ticks but I seem to be missing something. Am I using NSDateFormatter incorrectly, misunderstanding the usage of ticks or something else entirely?

Answer 1

The formatter returns nil if the given string doesn't correspond to the expected format. Your format string was almost right, you just needed to :

• Apostrophe should only be used for literals
• Milliseconds should be specified as 'SSS' and match the separation (use ss.SSS)

The correct format string is :

NSDateFormatter *df = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[df setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'"];
NSDate *d = [df dateFromString:@"2014-03-26T05:07:42.14286Z"];

Answer 2

Just replace the below line to modified line

[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'SS'Z'"];

Modified line:-

[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ"];