How to set a specific default time for a date picker in Swift

Swift 5

let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "HH:mm"
if let date = dateFormatter.date(from: "17:00") {
    print(date) // 2000-01-01 22:00:00 +0000
    datePicker.date = date
}

Additional note: If you've already set datePicker.minimumDate and you're using this dateFormat the date/time will default to it's earliest possible date--wasted an hour on this :|

Are you looking for setting the time through a string. If that''s the case you can use a date formatter like this.

let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat =  "HH:mm"

let date = dateFormatter.dateFromString("17:00")

datePicker.date = date

Adding an init to the Picker class

init(time:String) {
    super.init(frame: CGRectMake(0, 0, UIScreen.mainScreen().bounds.size.width, UIScreen.mainScreen().bounds.size.height))

    setupView()
    let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
    dateFormatter.dateFormat =  "HH:mm"

    if let date = dateFormatter.dateFromString("17:00") {
        datePicker.date = date
    }
}

with swift 4+

let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat =  "HH:mm"
let date = dateFormatter.date(from: "17:00")
datePicker.date = date