The curious case of the 24-hour time format in Swift

Table of Content

1. Time Formats on iOS devices
2. Default 24-hour time format
3. Hour formats conflict
4. What I did
5. Wrapping up

Time formats on iOS devices

As you probably know, in iOS you can choose between a 24-hour date format and a 12-hour date format (A.M./P.M.). Users usually choose one of these formats depending on local tradition or habits. They can change the format anytime they want via Settings (Settings > General > Date & Time).

What was something new for me, 24/12-hour formats have a big impact on date formats inside an app.

Default 24-hour time format

In one of the apps that I’m developing, a client wanted a 24-hour date format. It felt natural for him, because this format is popular in his region.

So, from the API I’m getting a String with a Rails format of the date. Then I need to parse this JSON endpoint into `Date()`. More about handling Rails date formats in Swift can be found here.

This `Date()` object needs to be changed into a `String` that is displayed in app. I use a simple `DateFormatter()` with parameters like these:

dateFormatter.dateFormat = "HH:mm"

Hour formats conflict

Soon afterwards, one of the users made a request claiming that the app had a bug. According to his claims, the dates were not displayed in a proper way.

After a quick investigation, we found out that he was using a 12-hour date format on his iPhone than the default 24-hours date format. And this little change impacted all the dates shown inside the app.

What I did

Of course, the simplest solution was to convince the user to change his Settings and use a 24-hour date format instead. But 'simplest' does not mean 'best'.

So I dove into the DateFormatter() to find out if there is a solution to force the app to display the hours in a certain way.

I wanted the app to always display the 24-hour date format, no matter if an iPhone uses a 12-hour or 24-hour date format. I needed to set HH and hide AM/PM markers. You can achieve this by using `customFormatter.setLocalizedDateFormatFromTemplate` on DateFormatter():

customDateFormatter.setLocalizedDateFormatFromTemplate("HH:mm a")

Then you need to hide the AM/PM markers:

customDateFormatter.amSymbol = ""

customDateFormatter.pmSymbol = ""

But this is not all yet. Sometimes the hour format can be forced by a particular region, so the best solution is to set locale:

customDateFormatter.locale = Locale(identifier: "en_US")

Wrapping up

That’s all, folks! Now the date will be always dispalyed in the 24-hour format, no matter if a user changed their iPhone Settings or not.

Photo by Han Chau on Unsplash

Recommended reads

• How to get started with SwiftUI?
• Adding Gaussian blur to your Swift mobile app’s UIView
• Read how we build our mobile apps. Read our playbook!