How can I determine if iPhone is set for 12 hour or 24 hour time display?

user_1693173 0
Viewed 11696

I thought I saw something answering this on SO recently but now I can't find it. Here is the code I am using now to determine if settings are for 24 hour time display. It works for me in the US, but I don't know if it will work in all locales. Is this sufficient or is there a better way to find out the current setting for this?

+(BOOL) use24HourClock
{
    BOOL using24HourClock = NO;

    NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];    
    [dateFormatter setLocale: [NSLocale currentLocale]];    
    [dateFormatter setDateStyle:kCFDateFormatterNoStyle];
    [dateFormatter setTimeStyle:kCFDateFormatterShortStyle];    
    // get date/time (1Jan2001 0000UTC)
    NSDate* midnight = [[NSDate alloc] initWithTimeIntervalSinceReferenceDate:0];   
    NSString* dateString = [dateFormatter stringFromDate: midnight];
    // dateString will either be "15:00" or "16:00" (depending on DST) or
    // it will be "4:00 PM" or "3:00 PM" (depending on DST)
    using24HourClock = ([dateString length] == 5);
    [midnight release];
    [dateFormatter release];    

    return using24HourClock;
}
datetime localization iphone
5 Answers

I've just asked a similar question on here and I've managed to figure out a decent way of determining this with a little function I've added to a category of NSLocale. It appears to be pretty accurate and haven't found any problems with it while testing with several regions.

@implementation NSLocale (Misc)
- (BOOL)timeIs24HourFormat {
    NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [formatter setLocale:self];
    [formatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterNoStyle];
    [formatter setTimeStyle:NSDateFormatterShortStyle];
    NSString *dateString = [formatter stringFromDate:[NSDate date]];
    NSRange amRange = [dateString rangeOfString:[formatter AMSymbol]];
    NSRange pmRange = [dateString rangeOfString:[formatter PMSymbol]];
    BOOL is24Hour = (amRange.location == NSNotFound && pmRange.location == NSNotFound);
    [formatter release];
    return is24Hour;
}
@end

Hope this helps!

user_1062440

In Swift 4:

let formatString: String = DateFormatter.dateFormat(fromTemplate: "j", options: 0, locale: Locale.current)!
let hasAMPM = formatString.contains("a")
user_59565680

I my case I simply set timeStyle = .short for dateFormatter. (Swift)

let yourCustomDate = Date()
let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "hh:mm a"
dateFormatter.amSymbol = "am"
dateFormatter.pmSymbol = "pm"
dateFormatter.timeStyle = .short
dateFormatter.timeZone = TimeZone(secondsFromGMT: 0)
let dateString = dateFormatter.string(from: yourCustomDate)

As result, dateString will be automatically converted to 12 or 24 time format. For example: 6:30 pm in 12-hours format and 18:30 in 24-hours format.

user_119983210
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