CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iosnsdate
surendher
surendher

Reputation: 1378

Validation for input string is Date or not?

I have a textfield where the user can enter their date of birth, now i wants to make sure whether the input is of date format before saving into database. I gone through the SO , but still i didn't get the answer. Can anyone tell me how to validate(is it date) the input.

The date format would be MM/DD/YYYY

Note:I don't want the user to select date through date picker.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 10551

Answers (4)

Vijay-Apple-Dev.blogspot.com
Vijay-Apple-Dev.blogspot.com

Reputation: 25692

NSString *dateFromTextfield = @"07/24/2013";

//Extra validation, because the user can enter UTC date as completely in textfield,
//Here i assumed that you would expect only string lenth of 10 for date
//If more than digits then invalid date.
if ([dateFromTextfield length]>10) {

    //Show alert invalid date

    return;

}

//If you give the correct date format then only date formatter will convert it to NSDate. Otherwise return nil.
//So we can make use of that to find out whether the user has entered date or not.

NSDateFormatter *dateFormat = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormat setDateFormat:@"MM/dd/yyyy"];
NSDate *date = [dateFormat dateFromString:dateFromTextfield];
[dateFormat release];

//If date and date object is kind of NSDate class, then it must be a date produced by dateFormat.
if (date!=nil && [date isKindOfClass:[NSDate class]]) {

    //User has entered date
    // '/' and numbers only entered

}
else{

    //Show alert invalid date

    //Other than that date format.
}

Upvotes: 1

9to5ios
9to5ios

Reputation: 5545

Try this 

NSString *dateFromTextfield = @"07/24/2013";

   // Convert string to date object
    NSDateFormatter *dateFormat = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [dateFormat setDateFormat:@"MM/dd/yyyy"];// here set format which you want...
    NSDate *date = [dateFormat dateFromString:dateFromTextfield]; 
    [dateFormat release];

and then check 

//set int position to 2 and 5  as it contain / for a valid date
unichar ch = [dateFromTextfield characterAtIndex:position];
NSLog(@"%c", ch);

if (ch == '/') 
{
 //valid date
}
else
 { 
 //not a valid date
}

Upvotes: 4

nsinvocation
nsinvocation

Reputation: 7637

First of all, use UIDatePicker because it's designed special for this, it's a natural way to select a date on iOS platform. Anyway if you want to check if string from UITextField is a date, format (using a formatter) it and get date relying on formatter

NSString *dateAsString = @"2010-05-24" // string from textfield
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd"];
NSDate * dateFromString = [myDateFormatter dateFromString:dateAsString];

If NSDate is not nil, then it's ok, else something is wrong: user typed not a date or date which user typed has a wrong format.

TRY TO PROVIDE A HINT FOR USER, LIKE EXAMPLE: 'DATE SHOULD HAVE FORMAT: yyyy-dd-MM'

Upvotes: 1

Blevz
Blevz

Reputation: 30

Convert string to date in my iPhone app

Then check if it is or isn't nil. Maybe also check that it is within a reasonable bound for whatever your application is

Upvotes: 1

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