Current time in HH:MM:SS am/pm format?

Question

How can I obtain the current time in HH:MM:SS am/pm format?

I'm unable to figure out how am/pm is displayed in a 12 hr format — NSExplorer, Jan 17 '11 at 16:55
Gory details of format strings: http://unicode.org/reports/tr35/tr35-6.html#Date_Format_Patterns — martin clayton, Jan 17 '11 at 17:03
**Swift 3 Answer :** https://stackoverflow.com/a/46027060/3400991 — Shobhakar Tiwari, Sep 03 '17 at 19:22

Chris Wagner · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-03T03:49:45.790

90

NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[formatter setDateFormat:@"hh:mm:ss a"];
NSLog(@"Current Date: %@", [formatter stringFromDate:[NSDate date]]);
[formatter release];

The format of the string in setDateFormat is based on ISO-8601, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601#Dates

Swift 3 Version:

let formatter = DateFormatter()
formatter.dateFormat = "hh:mm:ss a"
print("Current date: \(formatter.string(from: Date()))") // -> Current date: 08:48:48 PM

There's also a new site since this original answer that helps writing these format strings. Aptly named... http://nsdateformatter.com

edited Feb 03 '17 at 03:49

answered Jan 17 '11 at 16:50

Chris Wagner

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Maybe add AM/PM indicator as OP requested? – martin clayton Jan 17 '11 at 16:54
@martin Can you please elaborate what you mean by 'OP requested' ? Never heard of this before. – NSExplorer Jan 17 '11 at 16:58
3

@iPhone - I was pointing out that you asked for the AM/PM indictaor, but Flash84x didn't include it yet. OP is an abbreviation of "original post" or "original poster". (am/pm is 'a' btw: `"hh:mm:ss a"`.) – martin clayton Jan 17 '11 at 17:00
@iPhone Developer, OP means Original Poster, updated to add am/pm – Chris Wagner Jan 17 '11 at 17:00
2

use HH:mm instead of hh:mm to get the AM/PM – tomi44g Jul 06 '12 at 01:37

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 17 '11 at 16:48

2

See the NSDateFormatter class and the Data Formatting Guide. Don’t ever do these kind of things by hand, you won’t get the details right.

answered Jan 17 '11 at 16:48

zoul

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score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 17 '11 at 16:47

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http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes/NSDate_Class/Reference/Reference.html#//apple_ref/occ/instm/NSDate/descriptionWithCalendarFormat:timeZone:locale:

answered Jan 17 '11 at 16:47

Ciprian L.

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Current time in HH:MM:SS am/pm format?

3 Answers3