For handling dates with different formats you would need to use NSDateFormatter
NSDateFormatter *format = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[format setDateFormat:@"mm-dd-yyyy"];
To get date with specified format
NSString *dateString = [format stringFromDate:date];
To create a date from string with specified format:
NSDate *date = [format dateFromString:dateString];
NSDateFormatter documentation
To find the difference between two dates:
NSTimeInterval interval = [endDay timeIntervalSinceDate:startDay];
timeIntervalSinceDate documentation