In my iPhone app, I'd like to be able to determine if the user's locale's date format is Month/Day (i.e. 1/5 for January fifth) or Day/Month (i.e. 5/1 for January fifth). I have a custom NSDateFormatter which does not use one of the basic formats such as NSDateFormatterShortStyle (11/23/37).
In an ideal world, I want to use NSDateFormatterShortStyle, but just not display the year (only month & day#). What's the best way to accomplish this?
You want to use NSDateFormatter's +dateFormatFromTemplate:options:locale:
Here is some Apple sample code:
NSLocale *usLocale = [[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"en_US"];
NSLocale *gbLocale = [[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"en_GB"];
NSString *dateFormat;
NSString *dateComponents = @"yMMMMd";
dateFormat = [NSDateFormatter dateFormatFromTemplate:dateComponents options:0 locale:usLocale];
NSLog(@"Date format for %@: %@",
[usLocale displayNameForKey:NSLocaleIdentifier value:[usLocale localeIdentifier]], dateFormat);
dateFormat = [NSDateFormatter dateFormatFromTemplate:dateComponents options:0 locale:gbLocale];
NSLog(@"Date format for %@: %@",
[gbLocale displayNameForKey:NSLocaleIdentifier value:[gbLocale localeIdentifier]], dateFormat);
// Output:
// Date format for English (United States): MMMM d, y
// Date format for English (United Kingdom): d MMMM y