Use SwiftyJSON to deserialize NSDate

It sounds like NSDate support isn't built in to SwiftyJSON, but you can extend the JSON class with your own convenience accessors.

The following code is adapted from this GitHub issue.

extension JSON {    public var date: NSDate? {        get {            if let str = self.string {                return JSON.jsonDateFormatter.dateFromString(str)            }            return nil        }    }    private static let jsonDateFormatter: NSDateFormatter = {        let fmt = NSDateFormatter()        fmt.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'"        fmt.timeZone = NSTimeZone(forSecondsFromGMT: 0)        return fmt    }()}

Example:

let j = JSON(data: "{\"abc\":\"2016-04-23T02:02:16.797Z\"}".dataUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding)!)print(j["abc"].date)  // prints Optional(2016-04-23 02:02:16 +0000)

You might need to tweak the date formatter for your own data; see this question for more examples. Also see this question about date formatting in JSON.

Swift 3 Version

extension JSON {    public var date: Date? {        get {            if let str = self.string {                return JSON.jsonDateFormatter.date(from: str)            }            return nil        }    }    private static let jsonDateFormatter: DateFormatter = {        let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()        dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZZZZZ"        dateFormatter.timeZone = TimeZone.autoupdatingCurrent        return dateFormatter    }()}