NSDate to String, String to Date in Swift

NDate<->String

// this could be a global formatter available to these other two
let formatter = NSDateFormatter();
formatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss ZZZ";

// since we lose something going to string and back, this does both passes for the current date/time
func now() -> NSDate {
    return stringToDate(dateToString(NSDate()))
}

func dateToString(date:NSDate) -> String {
    return formatter.stringFromDate(date);
}

func stringToDate(date:String) -> NSDate {
    return formatter.dateFromString(date) ?? NSDate()
}

// test it out
let date = now()
let dateAsString = dateToString(date)
let dateRecovered = stringToDate(dateAsString)

dateRecovered.compare(date) == NSComparisonResult.OrderedSame