NSDateFormatter returning nil NSDate object

Question

NSDateFormatter *aDateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[aDateFormatter setLocale:aLocale];
[aDateFormatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterFullStyle];
[aDateFormatter setDateFormat:@"EEE, MMM dd, yyyy"];
NSDate *aDateFromString = [aDateFormatter dateFromString:aKey];

Here, aKey = lun, October 11, 2010
aLocale = fr_CH

My aDateFromString is coming as nil. What is wrong with my code?

Answer 1

A few things to look at:

• use MMMM (four Ms) instead of MMM if the string contains the full month name
• in fr_CH, MMMM for October is "octobre" ("re" not "er")
• in fr_CH, EEE for Monday is "lun." (period at end)

Make sure aKey is in the proper format and correct the DateFormat string.

Answer 2

Playing around with this for a bit, and this code below gets a legit NSDate:

NSString *df = @"EEE, MMM dd, yyyy";
NSString *ds = @"lun., Octobre 11, 2010";
NSLocale *aLocale = [[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"fr_CH"];

NSDateFormatter *aDateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[aDateFormatter setLocale:aLocale];
[aDateFormatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterFullStyle];
[aDateFormatter setDateFormat:df];
NSDate *aDateFromString = [aDateFormatter dateFromString:ds];