Detect if time format is in 12hr or 24hr format

I figured it out, its pretty easy. I just added this code to viewDidLoad :

NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[formatter setLocale:[NSLocale currentLocale]];
[formatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterNoStyle];
[formatter setTimeStyle:NSDateFormatterShortStyle];
NSString *dateString = [formatter stringFromDate:[NSDate date]];
NSRange amRange = [dateString rangeOfString:[formatter AMSymbol]];
NSRange pmRange = [dateString rangeOfString:[formatter PMSymbol]];
BOOL is24h = (amRange.location == NSNotFound && pmRange.location == NSNotFound);
[formatter release];
NSLog(@"%@\n",(is24h ? @"YES" : @"NO"));

And it perfectly returns YES or NO depending on the locale.


And here is a Swift 3.0 updated version

func using12hClockFormat() -> Bool {

    let formatter = DateFormatter()
    formatter.locale = Locale.current
    formatter.dateStyle = .none
    formatter.timeStyle = .short

    let dateString = formatter.string(from: Date())
    let amRange = dateString.range(of: formatter.amSymbol)
    let pmRange = dateString.range(of: formatter.pmSymbol)

    return !(pmRange == nil && amRange == nil)
}

this is swift solution that worked for me, those two above did not.

let dateString: String = DateFormatter.dateFormat(
    fromTemplate: "j", options: 0,
    locale: Locale.current
)!
if(dateString.contains("a")){
// 12 h format
   return true
}else{
// 24 h format
   return false
}