Question

[NSDate date] returns GMT on simulator… what time does it return on the device… ? And also how can I get the simulator time programmatically?

Answer 1

It returns the current date and time. NSDate is timezone-independent. The -description of NSDate may be in GMT, but it’s not guarenteed.

The representation is not guaranteed to remain constant across different releases of the operating system. To format a date, you should use a date formatter object instead.

If you want to display or parse a date in a different timezone, use NSDateFormatter (and modify its timezone/locale property) or use -descriptionWithLocale:.

NSLocale* currentLocale = [NSLocale currentLocale]
NSLog(@"current locale = %@", [currentLocale localeIdentifier]);
NSLog(@"date = %@", [[NSDate date] descriptionWithLocale:currentLocale];