gistfile1.matlab

/**
  Goal: have a properly localized date (month/day in the correct order), yet 
  have a custom date component separator.

  Example as follows:
*/

 NSLocale *usLocale = [[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"en_US"];
    NSLocale *gbLocale = [[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"en_GB"];
    NSLocale *deLocale = [[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"de_DE"];
    NSLocale *frLocale = [[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"fr_FR"];
    
    NSString *localDateString = [NSDateFormatter dateFormatFromTemplate:@"MdY" options:0 locale:gbLocale];
    NSString *localDateString2 = [NSDateFormatter dateFormatFromTemplate:@"MdY" options:0 locale:usLocale];
    NSString *localDateString3 = [NSDateFormatter dateFormatFromTemplate:@"MdY" options:0 locale:frLocale];
    NSString *localDateString4 = [NSDateFormatter dateFormatFromTemplate:@"MdY" options:0 locale:deLocale];
    NSLog(@" GB:%@ \n US:%@ \n FR:%@ \n DE:%@", localDateString, localDateString2, localDateString3, localDateString4);

/*
 Output:

 GB:d/M/Y 
 US:M/d/Y 
 FR:d/M/YYYY 
 DE:d.M.Y
*/

// What's the right way to do this:
// because this is gross…
localDateString = [localDateString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"/" withString:@"."];

// such that the formatter string will ALWAYS use a dot instead of a slash or dash?
[formatter setDateFormat:localDateString];

Answer thus far: https://twitter.com/davedelong/statuses/238842053486858240

No built in way…

How about adding a category to NSDateFormatter

+ (NSString *)dateFormatFromTemplate:(NSString *)template options:(NSUInteger)opts locale:(NSLocale *)locale separator:(NSString*)separator
{
    NSString *format = [NSDateFormatter dateFormatFromTemplate:template options:opts locale:locale];
    return [format stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"/" withString:@"."];
}

Sure, you could do that… the issue is that "/" might not be the only separator.

The way to do this such that we account for all possible values is to just strip all characters that aren't in the set {M, d, Y}.

Then add the dot after the first and second characters.

Sounds like a job for NSRegularExpression

Hey @Me1000,

Did you solve this? I would be curious to know if there's a better solution?
Thanks!