Using an objects date (without time) for a table header instead of an objects date and time (iphone)?

Question

I've been working on an iphone project and have run into an issue. Currently In the table view where it displays all the objects, I use headers based on the objects datePerformed field. The only problem is that my code apparently creates a header that contains both the date and time resulting in objects not being grouped solely by their date as I intended, but rather based on their date and time. I'm not sure if it matters, but when an object is created I use a date picker to pick the date, but not the time. I was wondering if anyone could give me any suggestions or advice.

Here is the code where i set up the fetchedResultsController

- (NSFetchedResultsController *)fetchedResultsController {

if (fetchedResultsController != nil) {
    return fetchedResultsController;
}

// Create and configure a fetch request with the Exercise entity.
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"Exercise" inManagedObjectContext:managedObjectContext];
[fetchRequest setEntity:entity];

// Create the sort descriptors array using date and name
NSSortDescriptor *dateDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:@"datePerformed" ascending:NO];
NSSortDescriptor *nameDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:@"name" ascending:YES];
NSArray *sortDescriptors = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:dateDescriptor, nameDescriptor, nil];
[fetchRequest setSortDescriptors:sortDescriptors];

// Create and initialize the fetch results controller
NSFetchedResultsController *aFetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest:fetchRequest managedObjectContext:managedObjectContext sectionNameKeyPath:@"datePerformed" cacheName:@"Root"];
self.fetchedResultsController = aFetchedResultsController;
fetchedResultsController.delegate = self;

// Memory management calls
[aFetchedResultsController release];
[fetchRequest release];
[dateDescriptor release];
[nameDescriptor release];
[sortDescriptors release];

return fetchedResultsController;

}

Here's where I set up the table header properties

- (NSString *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView titleForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section {
// Display the exercise' date as section headings.
return [[[fetchedResultsController sections] objectAtIndex:section] name];

}

Any suggestions welcome. Thanks for your time.

-Billy Williamton

Answer 1

When you convert the NSDate to a string for the table, just convert the date and not the time. One of my apps does this exact thing for the table headers, I configure the date formatter this way (no time style):

self.dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterMediumStyle];

NSString* str = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:[NSDate date]];               

You might need to add this line if you are using a formatter that already has a time style set:

[dateFormatter setTimeStyle:NSDateFormatterNoStyle];