Difference between 'YYYY' and 'yyyy' in NSDateFormatter

Question

What is exact difference between 'YYYY' and 'yyyy'. I read in this link, it states that

A common mistake is to use YYYY. yyyy specifies the calendar year whereas YYYY specifies the year (of “Week of Year”), used in the ISO year-week calendar. In most cases, yyyy and YYYY yield the same number, however they may be different. Typically you should use the calendar year.

But when I try to use

NSString *stringDate = @"Feb 28, 2013 05:30pm";
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"MMM dd, yyyy hh:mma"];
NSDate *date=[dateFormatter dateFromString:stringDate];
NSLog(@"Date 1 : %@",date); //2013-02-28 12:00:00 +0000

NSString *stringDatee = @"Feb 28, 2013 05:30pm";
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatterr = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatterr setDateFormat:@"MMM dd, YYYY hh:mma"];
NSDate *datee=[dateFormatterr dateFromString:stringDatee];
NSLog(@"Date 2 : %@",datee); //2013-01-05 12:00:00 +0000

NSDateFormatter *dateFormat = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormat setDateFormat:@"MMM dd, YYYY hh:mma"];
NSString *dateString = [dateFormat stringFromDate:datee];
NSLog(@"date 3 : %@", dateString); //Jan 05, 2013 05:30PM

As here, result to date and datee different, which I understood, but why result of date 2 and date 3 are different? As I am creating date from string and reversing same to string again, but output mismatches?

Has anybody knows reason about same?. Though it specifies week of year, still I should get result same.

Thanks..

EDIT :-

If I code

NSDateFormatter *dateFormat = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormat setDateFormat:@"MMM dd, YYYY hh:mma"];
NSString *dateString = [dateFormatterr stringFromDate:[NSDate date]];
NSLog(@"date: %@", dateString); //Feb 28, 2013 04:37PM

If results me proper result, but same which I pass as string to date I get 2013-01-05 12:00:00 +0000, check date 2 of NSLog, Strange result, why?

Answer 1

Also when using a date format string using the correct format is important.

@"YYYY" is week-based calendar year.

@"yyyy" is ordinary calendar year.

You can go through the whole blog, its a good to give it a look

https://web.archive.org/web/20150423093107/http://realmacsoftware.com/blog/working-with-date-and-time

http://realmacsoftware.com/blog/working-with-date-and-time (dead link)

Answer 2

A common mistake is to use YYYY. yyyy specifies the calendar year whereas YYYY specifies the year (of “Week of Year”), used in the ISO year-week calendar. In most cases, yyyy and YYYY yield the same number, however they may be different. Typically you should use the calendar year.

from Apple Docs

Answer 3

dd/MMM/YYYY - e.g.:1 01/Jan/2000; answer : 19/dec/1999
              (see weekly calendar December month last Monday
              suppose leaf year + 1 day)
dd/MMM/yyyy - eg: ordinary - no problem.

Answer 4

All answers differentiating yyyy and YYYY are right answers for another question. The question itself refers to another thing.

Why does these two values are different? (extracted from question)

NSLog(@"Date 2 : %@",datee); //2013-01-05 12:00:00 +0000
NSLog(@"Date 3 : %@", dateString); //Jan 05, 2013 05:30PM

The answer here @P.J is that they are not really different in value. When you log an NSDate (which is Date 2) you are getting the full description of your object which happens to be on UTC Timezone. This logic does not happen when logging Date 3 because it was already converted to a String and applied your Timezone.

For printing Date 3 the 'same way' as you are getting Date 2. You should specify UTC TimeZone for Date 3. Something like this :

NSDateFormatter *dateFormat = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormat setDateFormat:@"MMM dd, YYYY hh:mma"];
[dateFormat setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone timeZoneWithAbbreviation:@"UTC"]];
NSString *dateString = [dateFormat stringFromDate:datee];
NSLog(@"date 3 : %@", dateString); 

Hope this helps.

tl;dr the Timezone