setDefaultTimeZone does not work

Question

I only found very old entries about setDefaultTimeZone in iOS SDK, but no solution for the problem, that setDefaultTimeZone simply does not do anything.

NSTimeZone *germanTimeZone = [NSTimeZone timeZoneWithName:@"Europe/Berlin"];
[NSTimeZone setDefaultTimeZone:germanTimeZone];
NSLog(@"Berlin time: %@", [[NSDate date] descriptionWithLocale:nil]);

This should result in something like:

Berlin time: 2014-06-30 15:58:34 +0200

But it results simly to:

Berlin time: 2014-06-30 15:58:34 +0000

Thank you in advance for any hint or solution.

Edit: Ok, below is my working code.

NSTimeZone *germanTimeZone = [NSTimeZone timeZoneWithName:@"Europe/Berlin"];
[NSTimeZone setDefaultTimeZone:germanTimeZone];

NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"MM/dd/yyyy hh:mma"];
NSLog(@"Time: %@", [dateFormatter stringFromDate:[NSDate date]]);

Use an `NSDateFormatter` to print the date in the desired format. `NSDate` objects represent absolute points in time and are independent of timezones (or anything else for that matter) — spassas, Jun 30 '14 at 16:16
@spassas that is not true. The value of NSDate *will change* if you change the default timezone. Tested in simulator and playground. — Dan Loewenherz, Mar 18 '16 at 17:42
@Dan "NSDate objects encapsulate a single point in time, independent of any particular calendrical system or time zone" from the [NSDate reference](https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes/NSDate_Class/) — spassas, Mar 20 '16 at 18:59
@spassas I'm not sure what that NSDate documentation reference is refuting here, but you can try it yourself. An NSDate value *will change* if you change the timezone. Of course, it doesn't *contain* timezone data, but the value of the date will change. — Dan Loewenherz, Mar 21 '16 at 13:18
@Dan Check [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24650443/nsdate-behaviour-when-saving-to-plist/24650824#24650824) for a related discussion. Logging an `NSDate` will print the _description_ of the object and the output can be quite arbitrary. — spassas, Mar 21 '16 at 16:41

Sandy Chapman · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-02T10:55:35.527

1

Try this:

NSTimeZone* UTC = [NSTimeZone timeZoneWithName:@"UTC"];
[NSTimeZone setDefaultTimeZone:UTC];

And to print use an NSDateFormatter:

NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
dateFormatter.timeZone = [NSTimeZone timeZoneWithName:@"Europe/Berlin"];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"MM/dd/yyyy hh:mma"];
NSLog(@"%@", [dateFormatter stringFromDate:[NSDate date]]);

edited Jul 02 '14 at 10:55

answered Jun 30 '14 at 16:12

Sandy Chapman

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Thank you very much, the above needs a specified dateformat, i think, otherwise the output would be empty. I add my working code above. – Sven Jul 01 '14 at 08:18
@Sven, I'm glad you got it working. If this is a correct answer, can you mark it as such? – Sandy Chapman Jul 02 '14 at 10:55

setDefaultTimeZone does not work

1 Answers1