---
title: description
framework: foundation
role: symbol
role_heading: Instance Property
path: foundation/nsdate/description
---

# description

A string representation of the date object.

## Declaration

```swift
var description: String { get }
```

## Discussion

Discussion The representation is useful for debugging only. There are a number of options to acquire a formatted string for a date including: date formatters (see DateFormatter and Data Formatting Guide), and the NSDate methods description(with:), date(withCalendarFormat:timeZone:), and description(withCalendarFormat:timeZone:locale:)

## See Also

### Related Documentation

- [description(withCalendarFormat:timeZone:locale:)](foundation/nsdate/description(withcalendarformat:timezone:locale:).md)
- [date(withCalendarFormat:timeZone:)](foundation/nsdate/date(withcalendarformat:timezone:).md)

### Describing Dates

- [description(with:)](foundation/nsdate/description(with:).md)
- [customPlaygroundQuickLook](foundation/nsdate/customplaygroundquicklook.md)