iphone: NSDateFormatter how to show time in 24 hours format?

Question

NSDateFormatter *formatter1=[[NSDateFormatter alloc]init];
[formatter1 setDateFormat:@"HHmmss MMddyyyy"];
NSDate *finalDate =[formatter1 dateFromString:testTime];

NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[formatter setTimeStyle:NSDateFormatterShortStyle];
[lblpickUpTime setText:[formatter stringFromDate:finalDate]];
[formatter release];
[formatter1 release];

where testTime = @"201518 07122011"; and I want the result in 24 hours time

e.g. 20.15 rather than 8:15 PM

and is there any better way to do this?

Solution 1

Try by setting

[formatter setDateFormat:@"HH:mm"];  // replacement for [formatter setTimeStyle:NSDateFormatterShortStyle];

Alternate method (without using any formatters):

NSRange range;
range.location = 2;
range.length = 2;
NSString *dateString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@:%@",[myString substringToIndex:2],[myString substringWithRange:range]];

Solution 2

If you specify a format instead of using NSDateFormatterShortStyle, you can have the output in any format you want. For example:

NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[formatter setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd 'at' HH:mm"];
[lblpickUpTime setText:[formatter stringFromDate:finalDate]];
[formatter release];

Comments

[Azhar]

I only want time not the date

[Azhar]

what about my second qutions that is there any better way to do this conversion as I made two formatters?

[Akshay]

You can change the format of the 1st formatter itself. [formatter1 setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd 'at' HH:mm"];. No need for the 2nd formatter.

[KingofBliss]

@azar two conversion is must since u are converting a datestring on one format to another..

[KingofBliss]

@akshay he is not converting from a date.. his input is also a string.. so your solution wont work

[KingofBliss]

@azar: you can trim the first four char of the string.. if the time 1:00 am is come as 0100, then it would fine

[Akshay]

@iAnand: The 2nd conversion is from a date to a string. I don't think it won't work.

[KingofBliss]

@Akshay: it will work.. bt he want only time.. that i have answer.. then he want to know is there any alternative for not using two formatter.

[Flexicoder]

Please note that if the user has 24 hour clock turned off on the device it will always return 8:15 PM, regardless of the format string you supply - Apple Docs