Extract date from natural language string

gistfile1.m

/*
Extract date from natural language string
Source: WWDC2012 Session 215 - Text and Linguistic Analysis
*/

NSDataDetector *dateDetector = [NSDataDetector dataDetectorWithTypes:NSTextCheckingTypeDate error:nil];
NSString *dateString = @"13th September 1986 11:59pm";
NSTextCheckingResult *result = [dateDetector firstMatchInString:dateString
                                                        options:0
                                                          range:NSMakeRange(0, [dateString length])];
if (result.resultType == NSTextCheckingTypeDate) {
    NSLog(@"%@", result.date);
}