ios - Convert string with unknown format (any format) to date -

i have data contains date string.

normally in 'jan. 3, 1966' type format, because of international differences, may not that.

i need read data in , convert standard date string ('yyyy-mm-dd').

basically have far:

var datastring = 'jan. 3, 1966'   var dateformatter = nsdateformatter()   dateformatter.dateformat = # don't know exact input format ! let datevalue = dateformatter.datefromstring(datastring)   

xcode 9 • swift 4 or xcode 8.3.2 • swift 3.1

you can use nsdatadetector follow:

extension string {     var nsstring: nsstring { return self nsstring }     var length: int { return nsstring.length }     var nsrange: nsrange { return nsrange(location: 0, length: length) }     var detectdates: [date]? {         return try? nsdatadetector(types: nstextcheckingresult.checkingtype.date.rawvalue)                 .matches(in: self, range: nsrange)                 .flatmap{$0.date}     } }  extension collection iterator.element == string {     var dates: [date] {         return flatmap{$0.detectdates}.flatmap{$0}     } } 

testing:

let datestrings = ["january 3, 1966","jan 3, 1966", "3 jan 1966"] datestring in datestrings {     if let datedetected = datestring.detectdates?.first {         print(datedetected)         // 1966-01-03 14:00:00 +0000         // 1966-01-03 14:00:00 +0000         // 1966-01-03 14:00:00 +0000     } }   let datestrings = ["january 3, 1966","jan 3, 1966", "3 jan 1966"]  date in datestrings.dates {     print(date)     // 1966-01-03 14:00:00 +0000     // 1966-01-03 14:00:00 +0000     // 1966-01-03 14:00:00 +0000 }