Nested Sorting NSArray

Question

I have this NSArray of NSDates, that I want sort in such a way, that the dates are descending, but the hours are ascending.

the sorted array would (paraphrased) look like:

{tomorrowMorning, tomorrowAfternoon, thisMorning, thisAfternoon, yesterdayMorning, yesterdayAfternoon}

What would be the best approach to accomplish this.

Answer 1

Add an extension to Date -

extension Date {

    public func dateWithZeroedTimeComponents() -> Date? {

        let calendar = Calendar.current

        var components = calendar.dateComponents([.year, .month, .day], from: self)
        components.hour = 0
        components.minute = 0
        components.second = 0

        return calendar.date(from: components)
    }
}

Then use this sort code -

// example test data
let dates: [Date] = [Date(timeIntervalSinceNow: -80060), Date(timeIntervalSinceNow: -30), Date(timeIntervalSinceNow: -75000), Date(timeIntervalSinceNow: -30000), Date(timeIntervalSinceNow: -30060)]

let sortedDates = dates.sorted { (date1, date2) -> Bool in

    if let date1Zeroed = date1.dateWithZeroedTimeComponents(), let date2Zeroed = date2.dateWithZeroedTimeComponents() {

        // if same date, order by time ascending
        if date1Zeroed.compare(date2Zeroed) == .orderedSame {
            return date1.compare(date2) == .orderedAscending
        }
        // otherwise order by date descending
        return date1.compare(date2) == .orderedDescending
    }

    return true
}

print(sortedDates)

Result - [2017-06-15 05:20:29 +0000, 2017-06-15 05:21:29 +0000, 2017-06-15 13:40:59 +0000, 2017-06-14 15:27:09 +0000, 2017-06-14 16:51:29 +0000]

I think this is what you want?