remove/hide rows outside minimum/maximum date range of UIDatePicker?

Question

I have a UIDatePicker with set minimum and maximum dates. I'm wondering if there is a way to hide the rows of the columns for the dates/times that are either before my minimum date or after my maximum date. Right now the picker displays every single day but only the current week is available to select (bold), what I would like is to have the numbers outside the range of the given week to be hidden from view. can this be done with the UIDatePicker provided by XCode or would I have to build my own picker from scratch?

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    self.formatter = [NSDateFormatter new];
    [self.formatter setDateFormat:@"dd:hh:mm:ss"];

    NSDate *now = [NSDate date];

    picker.minimumDate = [NSDate date];
    picker.maximumDate = [now dateByAddingTimeInterval:604800];

    [picker setDate:now animated:YES];
    self.counterLabel.text = [now description];

    self.now = [NSDate date];
    self.counterLabel.text = [self.formatter stringFromDate:self.now];

}

Answer 1

Using the minimumDate and maximumDate APIs will behave as you've explained - still show the dates but not allow selecting them. There is currently no way to hide those dates that are out of the provided range, however I do have a solution for you.

Instead of using the min and max dates with a UIDatePicker, you can generate an array of all of the NSDates you want to show to the user, and use a UIPickerView to present them to the user. I've done exactly this for one of my own apps.

self.datePicker = [[UIPickerView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, self.view.frame.size.width, 162)];
self.datePicker.dataSource = self;
self.datePicker.delegate = self;
//...

#pragma mark - UIPickerView Data Source and Delegate

- (NSInteger)numberOfComponentsInPickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView {
    return 1;
}

- (NSInteger)pickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView numberOfRowsInComponent:(NSInteger)component {
    return [self.availableDates count];
}

- (CGFloat)pickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView rowHeightForComponent:(NSInteger)component {
    return 28;
}

- (UIView *)pickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView viewForRow:(NSInteger)row forComponent:(NSInteger)component reusingView:(UIView *)view {
    UILabel *label = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
    label.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:20];
    label.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];

    NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    dateFormatter.dateFormat = @"EEE, MMMM d";

    label.text = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:self.availableDates[row]];

    [label sizeToFit];

    return label;
}