NSDateFormatter honours user's 12/24 hour setting even when overridden in code

Originator:amorya
Number:rdar://8988715 Date Originated:11-Feb-2011 03:04 PM
Status:Open Resolved:
Product:iPhone SDK Product Version:4.2.1
Classification:Other Bug Reproducible:Always
 
11-Feb-2011 03:04 PM Amy Worrall:
Summary:
When the user has set their 12/24 hour clock setting to the opposite of their region's default, NSDateFormatter refuses to parse dates in the other setting, even when a specific date format is specified by the developer.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Set iPhone region format to United Kingdom
2. Set iPhone 12/24 hour setting to 12 hour clock
3. Run the following code:

	NSString *dateString = @"2031-01-01 22:20:00";
	
	NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
	[dateFormatter setTimeZone: [NSTimeZone timeZoneWithAbbreviation:@"GMT"]];
	[dateFormatter setDateFormat: @"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"];  
	
	NSDate *dateOut = [dateFormatter dateFromString:dateString];
	
	NSLog(@"Date: %@", dateOut);


Expected Results:
Logged: "Date: 2031-01-01 22:20:00 +0000"

Actual Results:
Logged: "Date: (null)"

Regression:

Notes:

Comments

Apple responded, and claimed it works as designed. I hence requested the documentation to be changed: see bug 9080156 http://openradar.appspot.com/radar?id=1129405

By amorya at March 3, 2011, 10:45 a.m. (reply...)

A workaround is to explicitly set a region on the date formatter before using it to parse a string.

By amorya at Feb. 11, 2011, 3:07 p.m. (reply...)

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