I run the following code: NSDate *now = [NSDate date]; NSLog(@now: %@, now); and

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Editorial Team

Asked: May 25, 20262026-05-25T14:29:05+00:00 2026-05-25T14:29:05+00:00

I run the following code:

NSDate *now = [NSDate date];

NSLog(@"now: %@", now);

and get :

2011-09-16 16:14:16.434 iSavemore[1229:7907] now: 2011-09-16 21:14:16 +0000

As you can see i’m running this at 16:14:16 (4:14 pm) but NSDate is returning 21:16:16 (9:14 pm!). Is this an Xcode4 issue or NSDate issue?

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Editorial Team · Answer 1 · 2026-05-25T14:29:06+00:00

NSDate defaults to the Universal timezone (aka GMT).

I’m guessing you’re somewhere on the East Coast, 5 hours behind UTC.

Try adding this to your date formatter…

NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[[NSDateFormatter alloc] init] autorelease];

[dateFormatter setLocale:[NSLocale currentLocale]];

…and you should see your local time.

If you want to use a specified locale, rather than ‘currentLocale’, create a NSLocale for the relevant locale.

NSLocale *usLoc = [[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"en_US"];

[dateFormatter setLocale:usLoc];

…actually that’s US (so possibly not Central).

More specific timezone help can be found here…

However, if you want to show expiry time, wouldn’t you still want it in the user’s currentLocale?

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