IOS: NSDateFormatter

Question

I am trying to create something similar to Kevin Lawler's Timeago for future dates. It seems that using dateFormatter and setting SetDoesRelativeDateFormatting:YES is the closest native api to that library or similar libraries in other languages. Apple provides the sample code below that I have working. However, its future capability is limited to swapping tomorrow for tomorrow's date and so I am trying to combine it with NSDateFormatter. For some reason, however, I can't get the two to work together.

Apple reference code:

NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
dateFormatter.timeStyle = NSDateFormatterNoStyle;
dateFormatter.dateStyle = NSDateFormatterMediumStyle; 
dateFormatter.doesRelativeDateFormatting = YES;

NSDate *date = [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:60*60*24*3];
NSString *dateString = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:date];
NSLog(@"dateString: %@", dateString); //logs valid output

If instead of using timestyle or datestyle, however, I use setDateFormat when I log out the result, I get nil.

NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssz"];
dateFormatter.doesRelativeDateFormatting = YES;
NSDate *date = [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:60*60*24*3];
NSString *dateString = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:date];
NSLog(@"dateString: %@", dateString); //logs blank

Does doesRelativeDateFormatting only work with NSDateFormatterMediumStyle or can you combine it with setDateFormat in some way that I am not seeing?

Answer 1

Please use below code it worked for me

NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    dateFormatter.timeStyle = NSDateFormatterNoStyle;
    dateFormatter.dateStyle = NSDateFormatterMediumStyle;
    dateFormatter.doesRelativeDateFormatting = YES;

    NSDate *date = [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:60*60*24*3];
    NSString *dateString = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:date];
    NSLog(@"dateString: %@", dateString); //logs valid output


    dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssz"];
    dateFormatter.doesRelativeDateFormatting = NO;
    date = [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:60*60*24*3];
    dateString = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:date];
    NSLog(@"dateString: %@", dateString); //logs date correctly