Swift convert unix time to date and time

Question or problem with Swift language programming:

My current code:

if  let var timeResult = (jsonResult["dt"] as? Double) {
    timeResult = NSDate().timeIntervalSince1970
    println(timeResult)
    println(NSDate())
}

The results:

println(timeResult) = 1415639000.67457

println(NSDate()) = 2014-11-10 17:03:20 +0000 was just to test to see what NSDate was providing.

I want the first to look like the last. The value for dt = 1415637900.

Also, how can I adjust to time zone? Running on iOS.

How to solve the problem:

Solution 1:

You can get a date with that value by using the NSDate(withTimeIntervalSince1970:) initializer:

let date = NSDate(timeIntervalSince1970: 1415637900)

Solution 2:

To get the date to show as the current time zone I used the following.

if let timeResult = (jsonResult["dt"] as? Double) {
     let date = NSDate(timeIntervalSince1970: timeResult)
     let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
     dateFormatter.timeStyle = NSDateFormatterStyle.MediumStyle //Set time style
     dateFormatter.dateStyle = NSDateFormatterStyle.MediumStyle //Set date style
     dateFormatter.timeZone = NSTimeZone()
     let localDate = dateFormatter.stringFromDate(date)
}

Swift 3.0 Version

if let timeResult = (jsonResult["dt"] as? Double) {
    let date = Date(timeIntervalSince1970: timeResult)
    let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
    dateFormatter.timeStyle = DateFormatter.Style.medium //Set time style
    dateFormatter.dateStyle = DateFormatter.Style.medium //Set date style
    dateFormatter.timeZone = self.timeZone
    let localDate = dateFormatter.string(from: date)                     
}

Swift 5

if let timeResult = (jsonResult["dt"] as? Double) {
    let date = Date(timeIntervalSince1970: timeResult)
    let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
    dateFormatter.timeStyle = DateFormatter.Style.medium //Set time style
    dateFormatter.dateStyle = DateFormatter.Style.medium //Set date style
    dateFormatter.timeZone = .current
    let localDate = dateFormatter.string(from: date)                                
}

Solution 3:

It’s simple to convert the Unix timestamp into the desired format. Lets suppose _ts is the Unix timestamp in long

let date = NSDate(timeIntervalSince1970: _ts)

let dayTimePeriodFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
dayTimePeriodFormatter.dateFormat = "MMM dd YYYY hh:mm a"

 let dateString = dayTimePeriodFormatter.stringFromDate(date)

  print( " _ts value is \(_ts)")
  print( " _ts value is \(dateString)")

Solution 4:

For managing dates in Swift 3 I ended up with this helper function:

extension Double {
    func getDateStringFromUTC() -> String {
        let date = Date(timeIntervalSince1970: self)

        let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
        dateFormatter.locale = Locale(identifier: "en_US")
        dateFormatter.dateStyle = .medium

        return dateFormatter.string(from: date)
    }
}

This way it easy to use whenever you need it – in my case it was converting a string:

("1481721300" as! Double).getDateStringFromUTC() // "Dec 14, 2016"

Reference the DateFormatter docs for more details on formatting (Note that some of the examples are out of date)

I found this article to be very helpful as well

Solution 5:

Here is a working Swift 3 solution from one of my apps.

/**
 * 
 * Convert unix time to human readable time. Return empty string if unixtime     
 * argument is 0. Note that EMPTY_STRING = ""
 *
 * @param unixdate the time in unix format, e.g. 1482505225
 * @param timezone the user's time zone, e.g. EST, PST
 * @return the date and time converted into human readable String format
 *
 **/

private func getDate(unixdate: Int, timezone: String) -> String {
    if unixdate == 0 {return EMPTY_STRING}
    let date = NSDate(timeIntervalSince1970: TimeInterval(unixdate))
    let dayTimePeriodFormatter = DateFormatter()
    dayTimePeriodFormatter.dateFormat = "MMM dd YYYY hh:mm a"
    dayTimePeriodFormatter.timeZone = NSTimeZone(name: timezone) as TimeZone!
    let dateString = dayTimePeriodFormatter.string(from: date as Date)
    return "Updated: \(dateString)"
}

Hope this helps!