Comparing two NSDates and ignoring the time component

I'm surprised that no other answers have this option for getting the "beginning of day" date for the objects:

[[NSCalendar currentCalendar] rangeOfUnit:NSCalendarUnitDay startDate:&date1 interval:NULL forDate:date1];
[[NSCalendar currentCalendar] rangeOfUnit:NSCalendarUnitDay startDate:&date2 interval:NULL forDate:date2];

Which sets date1 and date2 to the beginning of their respective days. If they are equal, they are on the same day.

Or this option:

NSUInteger day1 = [[NSCalendar currentCalendar] ordinalityOfUnit:NSDayCalendarUnit inUnit: forDate:date1];
NSUInteger day2 = [[NSCalendar currentCalendar] ordinalityOfUnit:NSCalendarUnitDay inUnit:NSCalendarUnitEra forDate:date2];

Which sets day1 and day2 to somewhat arbitrary values that can be compared. If they are equal, they are on the same day.


You set the time in the date to 00:00:00 before doing the comparison:

unsigned int flags = NSCalendarUnitYear | NSCalendarUnitMonth | NSCalendarUnitDay;
NSCalendar* calendar = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];

NSDateComponents* components = [calendar components:flags fromDate:date];

NSDate* dateOnly = [calendar dateFromComponents:components];

// ... necessary cleanup

Then you can compare the date values. See the overview in reference documentation.