Calendar view in SwiftUI with MultiDatePicker

20 Jun 2022 ⋅ 4 min read ⋅ SwiftUI Calendar WWDC22 iOS 16

Table of Contents

In iOS 16, we have a dedicated calendar view, MultiDatePicker, that lets users select multiple dates.

It got the same looks as the graphical style (.graphical) DatePicker. The difference is users can select multiple dates as dictated by multiple highlights.

MultiDatePicker, a control for picking multiple dates.

If you want to select a single date, you can use DatePicker.

In iOS 14, SwiftUI DatePicker has a graphical picker style that will present a date selector in a calendar form.

@State private var date = Date()

var body: some View {
    DatePicker(
        "Start Date",
        selection: $date,
        displayedComponents: [.date]
    )
    .datePickerStyle(.graphical)
}

DatePicker with a graphical picker style.

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How to use calendar view in SwiftUI

To use a MultiDatePicker, we only need to declare a Set<DateComponents> to hold a selected date.

struct MultiDatePickerExample: View {
    @State private var dates: Set<DateComponents> = []

    var body: some View {
        MultiDatePicker("Dates Available", selection: $dates)
            .fixedSize()
    }
}

With this minimal setup, we got a working calendar view allowing users to select multiple dates from any point in time.

If you want to constrain users to select only a subset of available dates, you have three ways to do that (I hope we got more before the release).

Picking dates on or after a date.
Picking dates before a date.
Picking dates in a Range.

Picking dates on or after a date

We can allow users to pick dates on or after a specified date by set PartialRangeFrom, e.g., startDate....

In this example, we allow date selection from June 20, 2022onward.

struct MultiDatePickerExample: View {
    @Environment(\.calendar) var calendar
    @Environment(\.timeZone) var timeZone
    
    var bounds: PartialRangeFrom<Date> {
        let start = calendar.date(
            from: DateComponents(
                timeZone: timeZone,
                year: 2022,
                month: 6,
                day: 20)
        )!
        
        return start...
    }
    
    @State private var dates: Set<DateComponents> = []

    var body: some View {
        MultiDatePicker("Dates Available", selection: $dates, in: bounds)
            .fixedSize()
    }
}

Days before June 20, 2022, are inactive and gray out. It is also impossible to select the previous month and previous year.

Picking dates before a date

We can allow users to picking dates before a specified end date by set PartialRangeUpTo, e.g., ..<endDate.

In this example, we allow date selection before June 20, 2022 (not including June 20, 2022).

struct MultiDatePickerExample: View {
    @Environment(\.calendar) var calendar
    @Environment(\.timeZone) var timeZone
    
    var bounds: PartialRangeUpTo<Date> {
        let end = calendar.date(
            from: DateComponents(
                timeZone: timeZone,
                year: 2022,
                month: 6,
                day: 20)
        )!
        
        return ..<end
    }
    
    @State private var dates: Set<DateComponents> = []

    var body: some View {
        MultiDatePicker("Dates Available", selection: $dates, in: bounds)
            .fixedSize()
    }
}

Days after June 20, 2022, are inactive and gray out. It is also impossible to select the next month and year.

Picking dates in a Range

You can set start and end available dates by specifying Range, e.g., startDate..<endDate.

In this example, we allow date selection from June 20, 2022 to from June 24, 2022.

struct MultiDatePickerExample: View {
    @Environment(\.calendar) var calendar
    @Environment(\.timeZone) var timeZone
    
    var bounds: Range<Date> {
        let start = calendar.date(
            from: DateComponents(
                timeZone: timeZone,
                year: 2022,
                month: 6,
                day: 20)
        )!
        let end = calendar.date(
            from: DateComponents(
                timeZone: timeZone,
                year: 2022,
                month: 6,
                day: 24)
        )!
        
        return start..<end
    }
    
    @State private var dates: Set<DateComponents> = []
    
    var body: some View {
        MultiDatePicker("Dates Available", selection: $dates, in: bounds)
            .fixedSize()
    }
}

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Conclusion

I think a calendar view is a view that many people want. It still lacks many features in the current beta.

I hope we can get more features before the release. If you have any suggestions, you can submit feedback to Apple here (I already submit some).

Read more article about SwiftUI, Calendar, WWDC22, iOS 16, or see

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