Combining 2 NSDateFormatters into one - ios

Question

Currently I have two NSDateFormatters in my app and I want to somehow "combine" them so I only have, since they're parsing the same date.
I have a NSObject called UpcomingReleases, thats where all my JSON info gets stored.
UpcomingRelease.h
- (NSString *) formattedDate;
UpcomingRelease.m
- (NSString *) formattedDate {
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:#"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'"];
NSDate *readableDate = [dateFormatter dateFromString:self.release_date];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:#"MMMM dd"];
return [dateFormatter stringFromDate:readableDate];
}
My UICollectionViewController (UpcomingReleasesViewController.m)
if([upcomingReleaseDictionary objectForKey:#"release_date"] != NULL)
{
NSString *readableDate = [upcomingReleaseDictionary objectForKey:#"release_date"];
UpcomingRelease *upcoming = [[UpcomingRelease alloc] init];
upcoming.release_date = readableDate;
cell.release_date.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#", upcoming.formattedDate];
}
My detailedViewController (ReleaseViewController.m)
(_singleRelease is a NSDictionary)
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
if([_singleRelease objectForKey:#"release_date"] != NULL)
{
NSString *readableDate = [_singleRelease objectForKey:#"release_date"];
UpcomingRelease *singleRelease = [[UpcomingRelease alloc] init];
singleRelease.release_date = readableDate;
self.release_date.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#", singleRelease.formattedDate];
}
}
This was working fine, until I added a share on twitter action and I had to add another NSDateFormatter so it could show the readable date inside the tweet (I would get an error saying "No visible interface for ReleaseViewController declares the selected 'formattedDate'" otherwise).
- (NSString *) formattedDate:(NSString *)jsonDateString {
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:#"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'"];
NSDate *readableDate = [dateFormatter dateFromString:jsonDateString];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:#"MMMM dd"];
return [dateFormatter stringFromDate:readableDate];
}
#pragma mark - Share on twitter
- (IBAction)shareOnTwitter:(id)sender {
if ([SLComposeViewController isAvailableForServiceType:SLServiceTypeTwitter])
{
SLComposeViewController *tweetSheet = [SLComposeViewController
composeViewControllerForServiceType:SLServiceTypeTwitter];
NSString *formattedDate = [self formattedDate:[_singleRelease objectForKey:#"release_date"]];
[tweetSheet setInitialText:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#", formattedDate]];
[self presentViewController:tweetSheet animated:YES completion:nil];
}
}
How can I combine both these NSDateFormatters into one? They're both parsing the same string in the same way (also if there's a better way to show the formattedDate string than the one I'm currently doing would be great).
This is how my JSON shows the date string:
release_date: "2013-11-16T00:00:00.000Z"
Thanks.

Answer 1

As #Hot Licks says:
Make the date formatter a class method:
+ (NSString *) formattedDate:(NSString *)jsonDateString {
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:#"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'"];
NSDate *readableDate = [dateFormatter dateFromString:jsonDateString];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:#"MMMM dd"];
return [dateFormatter stringFromDate:readableDate];
}
Put it in a utility class and use it in both cases. In the first case just pass in self.release_date.