NSCalendar Class Reference

Inherits from
NSObject
Conforms to
NSCopying
NSSecureCoding
NSObject (NSObject)
Framework
/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework
Availability
Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
Declared in
NSCalendar.h
Companion guides
Date and Time Programming Guide
Data Formatting Guide
Related sample code

Overview

Calendars encapsulate information about systems of reckoning time in which the beginning, length, and divisions of a year are defined. They provide information about the calendar and support for calendrical computations such as determining the range of a given calendrical unit and adding units to a given absolute time.

In a calendar, day, week, weekday, month, and year numbers are generally 1-based, but there may be calendar-specific exceptions. Ordinal numbers, where they occur, are 1-based. Some calendars represented by this API may have to map their basic unit concepts into year/month/week/day/… nomenclature. For example, a calendar composed of 4 quarters in a year instead of 12 months uses the month unit to represent quarters. The particular values of the unit are defined by each calendar, and are not necessarily consistent with values for that unit in another calendar.

To do calendar arithmetic, you use NSDate objects in conjunction with a calendar. For example, to convert between a decomposed date in one calendar and another calendar, you must first convert the decomposed elements into a date using the first calendar, then decompose it using the second. NSDate provides the absolute scale and epoch (reference point) for dates and times, which can then be rendered into a particular calendar, for calendrical computations or user display.

Two NSCalendar methods that return a date object, dateFromComponents:, dateByAddingComponents:toDate:options:, take as a parameter an NSDateComponents object that describes the calendrical components required for the computation. You can provide as many components as you need (or choose to). When there is incomplete information to compute an absolute time, default values similar to 0 and 1 are usually chosen by a calendar, but this is a calendar-specific choice. If you provide inconsistent information, calendar-specific disambiguation is performed (which may involve ignoring one or more of the parameters). Related methods (components:fromDate: and components:fromDate:toDate:options:) take a bit mask parameter that specifies which components to calculate when returning an NSDateComponents object. The bit mask is composed of NSCalendarUnit constants (see “Constants”).

NSCalendar is “toll-free bridged” with its Core Foundation counterpart, CFCalendarRef. See “Toll-Free Bridging” for more information on toll-free bridging.

Tasks

System Locale Information

Initializing a Calendar

Getting Information About a Calendar

Calendrical Calculations

Class Methods

autoupdatingCurrentCalendar

Returns the current logical calendar for the current user.

+ (id)autoupdatingCurrentCalendar
Return Value

The current logical calendar for the current user.

Discussion

Settings you get from this calendar do change as the user’s settings change (contrast with currentCalendar).

Note that if you cache values based on the calendar or related information those caches will of course not be automatically updated by the updating of the calendar object.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

currentCalendar

Returns the logical calendar for the current user.

+ (id)currentCalendar
Return Value

The logical calendar for the current user.

Discussion

The returned calendar is formed from the settings for the current user’s chosen system locale overlaid with any custom settings the user has specified in System Preferences. Settings you get from this calendar do not change as System Preferences are changed, so that your operations are consistent (contrast with autoupdatingCurrentCalendar).

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Related Sample Code
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

Instance Methods

calendarIdentifier

Returns the identifier for the receiver.

- (NSString *)calendarIdentifier
Return Value

The identifier for the receiver. For valid identifiers, see NSLocale.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

components:fromDate:

Returns a NSDateComponents object containing a given date decomposed into specified components.

- (NSDateComponents *)components:(NSUInteger)unitFlags fromDate:(NSDate *)date
Parameters
unitFlags

The components into which to decompose date—a bitwise OR of NSCalendarUnit constants.

date

The date for which to perform the calculation.

Return Value

An NSDateComponents object containing date decomposed into the components specified by unitFlags. Returns nil if date falls outside of the defined range of the receiver or if the computation cannot be performed

Discussion

The Weekday ordinality, when requested, refers to the next larger (than Week) of the requested units. Some computations can take a relatively long time.

The following example shows how to use this method to determine the current year, month, and day, using an existing calendar (gregorian):

unsigned unitFlags = NSYearCalendarUnit | NSMonthCalendarUnit |  NSDayCalendarUnit;
NSDate *date = [NSDate date];
NSDateComponents *comps = [gregorian components:unitFlags fromDate:date];
Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Related Sample Code
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

components:fromDate:toDate:options:

Returns, as an NSDateComponents object using specified components, the difference between two supplied dates.

- (NSDateComponents *)components:(NSUInteger)unitFlags fromDate:(NSDate *)startingDate toDate:(NSDate *)resultDate options:(NSUInteger)opts
Parameters
unitFlags

Specifies the components for the returned NSDateComponents object—a bitwise OR of NSCalendarUnit constants.

startingDate

The start date for the calculation.

resultDate

The end date for the calculation.

opts

Options for the calculation.

If you specify a “wrap” option (NSWrapCalendarComponents), the specified components are incremented and wrap around to zero/one on overflow, but do not cause higher units to be incremented. When the wrap option is false, overflow in a unit carries into the higher units, as in typical addition.

Return Value

An NSDateComponents object whose components are specified by unitFlags and calculated from the difference between the resultDate and startDate using the options specified by opts. Returns nil if either date falls outside the defined range of the receiver or if the computation cannot be performed.

Discussion

The result is lossy if there is not a small enough unit requested to hold the full precision of the difference. Some operations can be ambiguous, and the behavior of the computation is calendar-specific, but generally larger components will be computed before smaller components; for example, in the Gregorian calendar a result might be 1 month and 5 days instead of, for example, 0 months and 35 days. The resulting component values may be negative if resultDate is before startDate.

The following example shows how to get the approximate number of months and days between two dates using an existing calendar (gregorian):

NSDate *startDate = ...;
NSDate *endDate = ...;
unsigned int unitFlags = NSMonthCalendarUnit | NSDayCalendarUnit;
NSDateComponents *comps = [gregorian components:unitFlags fromDate:startDate  toDate:endDate  options:0];
int months = [comps month];
int days = [comps day];

Note that some computations can take a relatively long time.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

dateByAddingComponents:toDate:options:

Returns a new NSDate object representing the absolute time calculated by adding given components to a given date.

- (NSDate *)dateByAddingComponents:(NSDateComponents *)comps toDate:(NSDate *)date options:(NSUInteger)opts
Parameters
comps

The components to add to date.

date

The date to which comps are added.

opts

Options for the calculation. See “NSDateComponents wrapping behavior” for possible values. Pass 0 to specify no options.

If you specify no options (you pass 0), overflow in a unit carries into the higher units (as in typical addition).

Return Value

A new NSDate object representing the absolute time calculated by adding to date the calendrical components specified by comps using the options specified by opts. Returns nil if date falls outside the defined range of the receiver or if the computation cannot be performed.

Discussion

Some operations can be ambiguous, and the behavior of the computation is calendar-specific, but generally components are added in the order specified.

The following example shows how to add 2 months and 3 days to the current date and time using an existing calendar (gregorian):

NSDate *currentDate = [NSDate date];
NSDateComponents *comps = [[NSDateComponents alloc] init];
[comps setMonth:2];
[comps setDay:3];
NSDate *date = [gregorian dateByAddingComponents:comps toDate:currentDate  options:0];
[comps release];

Note that some computations can take a relatively long time.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Related Sample Code
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

dateFromComponents:

Returns a new NSDate object representing the absolute time calculated from given components.

- (NSDate *)dateFromComponents:(NSDateComponents *)comps
Parameters
comps

The components from which to calculate the returned date.

Return Value

A new NSDate object representing the absolute time calculated from comps. Returns nil if the receiver cannot convert the components given in comps into an absolute time. The method also returns nil and for out-of-range values.

Discussion

When there are insufficient components provided to completely specify an absolute time, a calendar uses default values of its choice. When there is inconsistent information, a calendar may ignore some of the components parameters or the method may return nil. Unnecessary components are ignored (for example, Day takes precedence over Weekday and Weekday ordinals).

The following example shows how to use this method to create a date object to represent 14:10:00 on 6 January 1965, for a given calendar (gregorian).

NSDateComponents *comps = [[NSDateComponents alloc] init];
[comps setYear:1965];
[comps setMonth:1];
[comps setDay:6];
[comps setHour:14];
[comps setMinute:10];
[comps setSecond:0];
NSDate *date = [gregorian dateFromComponents:comps];
[comps release];

Note that some computations can take a relatively long time to perform.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Related Sample Code
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

firstWeekday

Returns the index of the first weekday of the receiver.

- (NSUInteger)firstWeekday
Return Value

The index of the first weekday of the receiver.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

initWithCalendarIdentifier:

Initializes a newly-allocated NSCalendar object for the calendar specified by a given identifier.

- (id)initWithCalendarIdentifier:(NSString *)string
Parameters
string

The identifier for the new calendar. For valid identifiers, see NSLocale.

Return Value

The initialized calendar, or nil if the identifier is unknown (if, for example, it is either an unrecognized string or the calendar is not supported by the current version of the operating system).

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Related Sample Code
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

locale

Returns the locale for the receiver.

- (NSLocale *)locale
Return Value

The locale for the receiver.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

maximumRangeOfUnit:

The maximum range limits of the values that a given unit can take on in the receive

- (NSRange)maximumRangeOfUnit:(NSCalendarUnit)unit
Parameters
unit

The unit for which the maximum range is returned.

Return Value

The maximum range limits of the values that the unit specified by unit can take on in the receiver.

Discussion

As an example, in the Gregorian calendar the maximum range of values for the Day unit is 1-31.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

minimumDaysInFirstWeek

Returns the minimum number of days in the first week of the receiver.

- (NSUInteger)minimumDaysInFirstWeek
Return Value

The minimum number of days in the first week of the receiver

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

minimumRangeOfUnit:

Returns the minimum range limits of the values that a given unit can take on in the receiver.

- (NSRange)minimumRangeOfUnit:(NSCalendarUnit)unit
Parameters
unit

The unit for which the maximum range is returned.

Return Value

The minimum range limits of the values that the unit specified by unit can take on in the receiver.

Discussion

As an example, in the Gregorian calendar the minimum range of values for the Day unit is 1-28.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

ordinalityOfUnit:inUnit:forDate:

Returns, for a given absolute time, the ordinal number of a smaller calendar unit (such as a day) within a specified larger calendar unit (such as a week).

- (NSUInteger)ordinalityOfUnit:(NSCalendarUnit)smaller inUnit:(NSCalendarUnit)larger forDate:(NSDate *)date
Parameters
smaller

The smaller calendar unit

larger

The larger calendar unit

date

The absolute time for which the calculation is performed

Return Value

The ordinal number of smaller within larger at the time specified by date. Returns NSNotFound if larger is not logically bigger than smaller in the calendar, or the given combination of units does not make sense (or is a computation which is undefined).

Discussion

The ordinality is in most cases not the same as the decomposed value of the unit. Typically return values are 1 and greater. For example, the time 00:45 is in the first hour of the day, and for units Hour and Day respectively, the result would be 1. An exception is the week-in-month calculation, which returns 0 for days before the first week in the month containing the date.

Note that some computations can take a relatively long time.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

rangeOfUnit:inUnit:forDate:

Returns the range of absolute time values that a smaller calendar unit (such as a day) can take on in a larger calendar unit (such as a month) that includes a specified absolute time.

- (NSRange)rangeOfUnit:(NSCalendarUnit)smaller inUnit:(NSCalendarUnit)larger forDate:(NSDate *)date
Parameters
smaller

The smaller calendar unit.

larger

The larger calendar unit.

date

The absolute time for which the calculation is performed.

Return Value

The range of absolute time values smaller can take on in larger at the time specified by date. Returns {NSNotFound, NSNotFound} if larger is not logically bigger than smaller in the calendar, or the given combination of units does not make sense (or is a computation which is undefined).

Discussion

You can use this method to calculate, for example, the range the Day unit can take on in the Month in which date lies.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Related Sample Code
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

rangeOfUnit:startDate:interval:forDate:

Returns by reference the starting time and duration of a given calendar unit that contains a given date.

- (BOOL)rangeOfUnit:(NSCalendarUnit)unit startDate:(NSDate **)datep interval:(NSTimeInterval *)tip forDate:(NSDate *)date
Parameters
unit

A calendar unit (see “Calendar Units” for possible values).

datep

Upon return, contains the starting time of the calendar unit unit that contains the date date

tip

Upon return, contains the duration of the calendar unit unit that contains the date date

date

A date.

Return Value

YES if the starting time and duration of a unit could be calculated, otherwise NO.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

setFirstWeekday:

Sets the index of the first weekday for the receiver.

- (void)setFirstWeekday:(NSUInteger)weekday
Parameters
weekday

The first weekday for the receiver.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

setLocale:

Sets the locale for the receiver.

- (void)setLocale:(NSLocale *)locale
Parameters
locale

The locale for the receiver.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

setMinimumDaysInFirstWeek:

Sets the minimum number of days in the first week of the receiver.

- (void)setMinimumDaysInFirstWeek:(NSUInteger)mdw
Parameters
mdw

The minimum number of days in the first week of the receiver.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

setTimeZone:

Sets the time zone for the receiver.

- (void)setTimeZone:(NSTimeZone *)tz
Parameters
tz

The time zone for the receiver.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

timeZone

Returns the time zone for the receiver.

- (NSTimeZone *)timeZone
Return Value

The time zone for the receiver.

Availability
  • Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
See Also
Declared In
NSCalendar.h

Constants

Calendar Units

Specify calendrical units such as day and month. 

enum {
   NSEraCalendarUnit = kCFCalendarUnitEra,
   NSYearCalendarUnit = kCFCalendarUnitYear,
   NSMonthCalendarUnit = kCFCalendarUnitMonth,
   NSDayCalendarUnit = kCFCalendarUnitDay,
   NSHourCalendarUnit = kCFCalendarUnitHour,
   NSMinuteCalendarUnit = kCFCalendarUnitMinute,
   NSSecondCalendarUnit = kCFCalendarUnitSecond,
   NSWeekCalendarUnit = kCFCalendarUnitWeek,
   NSWeekdayCalendarUnit = kCFCalendarUnitWeekday,
   NSWeekdayOrdinalCalendarUnit = kCFCalendarUnitWeekdayOrdinal,
   NSQuarterCalendarUnit = kCFCalendarUnitQuarter,
   NSWeekOfMonthCalendarUnit = kCFCalendarUnitWeekOfMonth,
   NSWeekOfYearCalendarUnit = kCFCalendarUnitWeekOfYear,
   NSYearForWeekOfYearCalendarUnit = kCFCalendarUnitYearForWeekOfYear
   NSCalendarCalendarUnit = (1 << 20),
   NSTimeZoneCalendarUnit = (1 << 21),
};
typedef NSUInteger NSCalendarUnit;
Constants
NSEraCalendarUnit

Specifies the era unit.

The corresponding value is an NSInteger. Equal to kCFCalendarUnitEra.

Available in iOS 2.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

NSYearCalendarUnit

Specifies the year unit.

The corresponding value is an NSInteger. Equal to kCFCalendarUnitYear.

Available in iOS 2.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

NSMonthCalendarUnit

Specifies the month unit.

The corresponding value is an NSInteger. Equal to kCFCalendarUnitMonth.

Available in iOS 2.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

NSDayCalendarUnit

Specifies the day unit.

The corresponding value is an NSInteger. Equal to kCFCalendarUnitDay.

Available in iOS 2.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

NSHourCalendarUnit

Specifies the hour unit.

The corresponding value is an NSInteger. Equal to kCFCalendarUnitHour.

Available in iOS 2.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

NSMinuteCalendarUnit

Specifies the minute unit.

The corresponding value is an NSInteger. Equal to kCFCalendarUnitMinute.

Available in iOS 2.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

NSSecondCalendarUnit

Specifies the second unit.

The corresponding value is a double. Equal to kCFCalendarUnitSecond.

Available in iOS 2.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

NSWeekCalendarUnit

Specifies the week unit.

The corresponding value is an kCFCalendarUnitSecond. Equal to kCFCalendarUnitWeek.

Available in iOS 2.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

NSWeekdayCalendarUnit

Specifies the weekday unit.

The corresponding value is an kCFCalendarUnitSecond. Equal to kCFCalendarUnitWeekday. The weekday units are the numbers 1 through N (where for the Gregorian calendar N=7 and 1 is Sunday).

Available in iOS 2.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

NSWeekdayOrdinalCalendarUnit

Specifies the ordinal weekday unit.

The corresponding value is an kCFCalendarUnitSecond. Equal to kCFCalendarUnitWeekdayOrdinal. The weekday ordinal unit describes ordinal position within the month unit of the corresponding weekday unit. For example, in the Gregorian calendar a weekday ordinal unit of 2 for a weekday unit 3 indicates "the second Tuesday in the month".

Available in iOS 2.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

NSQuarterCalendarUnit

Specifies the quarter of the calendar as an kCFCalendarUnitSecond.

Available in iOS 4.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

NSWeekOfMonthCalendarUnit

Specifies the original week of a month calendar unit.

Available in iOS 5.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

NSWeekOfYearCalendarUnit

Specifies the original week of the year calendar unit.

Available in iOS 5.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

NSYearForWeekOfYearCalendarUnit

Specifies the year when the calendar is being interpreted as a week-based calendar.

Available in iOS 5.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

NSCalendarCalendarUnit

Specifies the calendar of the calendar.

Available in iOS 4.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

NSTimeZoneCalendarUnit

Specifies the time zone of the calendar as an NSTimeZone.

Available in iOS 4.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

Discussion

Calendar units may be used as a bit mask to specify a combination of units. Values in this enum are equal to the corresponding constants in the CFCalendarUnit enum.

Declared In
NSCalendar.h

NSDateComponents wrapping behavior

The wrapping option specifies wrapping behavior for calculations involving NSDateComponents objects.

enum
{
   NSWrapCalendarComponents = kCFCalendarComponentsWrap,
};
Constants
NSWrapCalendarComponents

Specifies that the components specified for an NSDateComponents object should be incremented and wrap around to zero/one on overflow, but should not cause higher units to be incremented.

Available in iOS 2.0 and later.

Declared in NSCalendar.h.

Declared In
NSCalendar.h


© 2011 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Last updated: 2011-06-06)

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