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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-09T13:31:10+00:00

I have an app that pulls data from a server where the timestamp is

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I have an app that pulls data from a server where the timestamp is UTC. My app has to show things on screen based on the current local time. The issue I am running into is the following

If I do this

// the Y M D is fine but time is -8 behind so showing 03:34 instead of 11:34.
NSDate *today = [[NSDate alloc] init];

So when I do this 

NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"(start <= %@) AND (room == %@) AND (end >= %@)", today, room, today];

I am not getting the correct results as today when inserted into the NSPredicate is “2012-08-10 03:34:00” but should be “2012-08-10 11:34:00”

I can’t just add 8 hours to the time because the app might be used in different timezones. The only idea is I have is to get the devices timezone figureout how many hours it is behind UTC the add/subtract those hours using NSDateComponents. Is there any easier way by just setting something in CoreData for NSPredicate fetches?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    [[NSDate alloc] init] returns the current UTC date and time.

    If you are storing the date to a database or server you should, as a best practice, store the UTC time and always convert to “local” format only when you display in the UI.

    If you need to display it in your UI you should use an NSDateFormatter to properly display it in local time. You can use the NSTimeZone object to determine the local time zone and set your NSDateFormatter with the appropriate time zone.

    Even when you create an NSDate formatted by a “locally configured” NSDateFormatter the underlying date/time is still in UTC.

    If you follow these principles you won’t have any issues with dates in your predicate

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