[objective-c] How can I calculate the difference between two dates?

How can I calculate the days between 1 Jan 2010 and (for example) 3 Feb 2010?

Swift 4
Try this and see (date range with String):

// Start & End date string
let startingAt = "01/01/2018"
let endingAt = "08/03/2018"

// Sample date formatter
let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd/MM/yyyy"

// start and end date object from string dates
var startDate = dateFormatter.date(from: startingAt) ?? Date()
let endDate = dateFormatter.date(from: endingAt) ?? Date()


// Actual operational logic
var dateRange: [String] = []
while startDate <= endDate {
    let stringDate = dateFormatter.string(from: startDate)
    startDate = Calendar.current.date(byAdding: .day, value: 1, to: startDate) ?? Date()
    dateRange.append(stringDate)
}

print("Resulting Array - \(dateRange)")

Swift 3

var date1 = Date(string: "2010-01-01 00:00:00 +0000")
var date2 = Date(string: "2010-02-03 00:00:00 +0000")
var secondsBetween: TimeInterval = date2.timeIntervalSince(date1)
var numberOfDays: Int = secondsBetween / 86400
print(numberOfDays)

If you want all the units, not just the biggest one, use one of these 2 methods (based on @Ankish's answer):

Example output: 28 D | 23 H | 59 M | 59 S

+ (NSString *) remaningTime:(NSDate *)startDate endDate:(NSDate *)endDate
{
    NSCalendarUnit units = NSCalendarUnitDay | NSCalendarUnitHour | NSCalendarUnitMinute | NSCalendarUnitSecond;
    NSDateComponents *components = [[NSCalendar currentCalendar] components:units fromDate: startDate toDate: endDate options: 0];
    return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ti D | %ti H | %ti M | %ti S", [components day], [components hour], [components minute], [components second]];
}

+ (NSString *) timeFromNowUntil:(NSDate *)endDate
{
    return [self remaningTime:[NSDate date] endDate:endDate];
}

NSTimeInterval diff = [date2 timeIntervalSinceDate:date1]; // in seconds

where date1 and date2 are NSDate's.

Also, note the definition of NSTimeInterval:

typedef double NSTimeInterval;

To find the difference, you need to get the current date and the date in the future. In the following case, I used 2 days for an example of the future date. Calculated by:

2 days * 24 hours * 60 minutes * 60 seconds. We expect the number of seconds in 2 days to be 172,800.

// Set the current and future date
let now = Date()
let nowPlus2Days = Date(timeInterval: 2*24*60*60, since: now)

// Get the number of seconds between these two dates
let secondsInterval = DateInterval(start: now, end: nowPlus2Days).duration

print(secondsInterval) // 172800.0

Checkout this out. It takes care of daylight saving , leap year as it used iOS calendar to calculate.You can change the string and conditions to includes minutes with hours and days.

+(NSString*)remaningTime:(NSDate*)startDate endDate:(NSDate*)endDate
{
    NSDateComponents *components;
    NSInteger days;
    NSInteger hour;
    NSInteger minutes;
    NSString *durationString;

    components = [[NSCalendar currentCalendar] components: NSCalendarUnitDay|NSCalendarUnitHour|NSCalendarUnitMinute fromDate: startDate toDate: endDate options: 0];

    days = [components day];
    hour = [components hour];
    minutes = [components minute];

    if(days>0)
    {
        if(days>1)
            durationString=[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d days",days];
        else
            durationString=[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d day",days];
        return durationString;
    }
    if(hour>0)
    {        
        if(hour>1)
            durationString=[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d hours",hour];
        else
            durationString=[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d hour",hour];
        return durationString;
    }
    if(minutes>0)
    {
        if(minutes>1)
            durationString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d minutes",minutes];
        else
            durationString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d minute",minutes];

        return durationString;
    }
    return @""; 
}

You can find the difference by converting the date in seconds and take time interval since 1970 for this and then you can find the difference between two dates.

You may want to use something like this:

NSDateComponents *components;
NSInteger days;

components = [[NSCalendar currentCalendar] components: NSDayCalendarUnit 
        fromDate: startDate toDate: endDate options: 0];
days = [components day];

I believe this method accounts for situations such as dates that span a change in daylight savings.

With Swift 5 and iOS 12, according to your needs, you may use one of the two following ways to find the difference between two dates in days.

#1. Using Calendar's dateComponents(_:from:to:) method

import Foundation

let calendar = Calendar.current

let startDate = calendar.date(from: DateComponents(year: 2010, month: 11, day: 22))!
let endDate = calendar.date(from: DateComponents(year: 2015, month: 5, day: 1))!

let dateComponents = calendar.dateComponents([Calendar.Component.day], from: startDate, to: endDate)

print(dateComponents) // prints: day: 1621 isLeapMonth: false
print(String(describing: dateComponents.day)) // prints: Optional(1621)

#2. Using DateComponentsFormatter's string(from:to:) method

import Foundation

let calendar = Calendar.current

let startDate = calendar.date(from: DateComponents(year: 2010, month: 11, day: 22))!
let endDate = calendar.date(from: DateComponents(year: 2015, month: 5, day: 1))!

let formatter = DateComponentsFormatter()
formatter.unitsStyle = .full
formatter.allowedUnits = [NSCalendar.Unit.day]

let elapsedTime = formatter.string(from: startDate, to: endDate)
print(String(describing: elapsedTime)) // prints: Optional("1,621 days")