How to get system time format when region is "United Kingdom" in ios?

Question

I am using the following code for get system time format in ios. And it work fine when my current region set with "United State" but when I change the region from "United State" to "United Kingdom" it always give 12 hour formate.

#pragma mark
#pragma mark - get system time
-(BOOL)getSystemTimeFormat
{
    NSString *strDateFormate = @"hh a";
    NSString *dateFormat = [NSDateFormatter dateFormatFromTemplate:strDateFormate options:0 locale:[NSLocale currentLocale]];
    if ([dateFormat rangeOfString:@"h"].location != NSNotFound)
    {
        [kNSUserDefaults setBool:YES forKey:@"TimeFormat"];
        [kNSUserDefaults synchronize];
        return YES;
    }
    else
    {
        [kNSUserDefaults setBool:NO forKey:@"TimeFormat"];
        [kNSUserDefaults synchronize];
        return NO;
    }

}

Log of the "United State" region::

2015-01-27 11:32:16.090 [350:60b] 12 Formate :: 0
2015-01-27 11:32:16.585 [350:60b] Connect
2015-01-27 11:32:16.591 [350:60b] Loction update...
2015-01-27 11:32:16.604 [350:60b] Loction update...
2015-01-27 11:32:16.622 [350:60b] Loction update...

Log of the "United Kingdom" region::

2015-01-27 11:33:35.785 [364:60b] 12 Formate :: 1
2015-01-27 11:33:36.777 [364:60b] Connect
2015-01-27 11:33:36.780 [364:60b] Loction update...
2015-01-27 11:33:36.806 [364:60b] Loction update...
2015-01-27 11:33:36.832 [364:60b] Loction update...

Answer 1

After lot of r&d on this topic finally i find the solution for this issue.

This uses a special date template string called "j". According to the ICU Spec, "j"...

Requests the preferred hour format for the locale (h, H, K, or k), as determined by whether h, H, K, or k is used in the standard short time format for the locale. In the implementation of such an API, 'j' must be replaced by h, H, K, or k before beginning a match against availableFormats data. Note that use of 'j' in a skeleton passed to an API is the only way to have a skeleton request a locale's preferred time cycle type (12-hour or 24-hour). That last sentence is important. It "is the only way to have a skeleton request a locale's preferred time cycle type". Since NSDateFormatter and NSCalendar are built on the ICU library, the same holds true here.

So i have change the templet value in my code

#pragma mark
#pragma mark - get system time
-(BOOL)getSystemTimeFormat
{
    NSString *strDateFormate = @"j";
    NSString *dateFormat = [NSDateFormatter dateFormatFromTemplate:strDateFormate options:0 locale:[NSLocale currentLocale]];
    if ([dateFormat rangeOfString:@"a"].location != NSNotFound)
    {
        [kNSUserDefaults setBool:YES forKey:@"TimeFormat"];
        [kNSUserDefaults synchronize];
        return YES;
    }
    else
    {
        [kNSUserDefaults setBool:NO forKey:@"TimeFormat"];
        [kNSUserDefaults synchronize];
        return NO;
    }

}

I found this solution from following link How can I determine if iPhone is set for 12 hour or 24 hour time display?.

Answer 2

You're basically trying to detect if 12h or 24h format is being used, correct? If so, try:

NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[formatter setLocale:[NSLocale currentLocale]];
[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 is24h = (amRange.location == NSNotFound && pmRange.location == NSNotFound);
[formatter release];
NSLog(@"%@\n",(is24h ? @"YES" : @"NO"));

Source: Detect if time format is in 12hr or 24hr format