I got a serial number form Java Date which convert into long-integer such as "1352101337000".
The problem I met is how to analyze this long-integer number back to NSDate or NSString so that I can clear to know what time the serial number is displaying.
Do anybody have solution for this case?
Use this,
NSTimeInterval timeInMiliseconds = [[NSDate date] timeIntervalSince1970];
To change it back,
NSDate* date = [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSince1970:timeInMiliseconds];
As per apple documentation,
NSTimeInterval: Used to specify a time interval, in seconds.
typedef double NSTimeInterval;
It is of type double.
To convert a date to string,
NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[formatter setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss zzz"];
//Optionally for time zone converstions
[formatter setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone timeZoneWithName:@"..."]];
NSString *stringFromDate = [formatter stringFromDate:myNSDateInstance];
[formatter release];
Swift
This answer has been updated for Swift 3, and thus no longer uses NSDate
.
Do the following steps to convert a long integer to a date string.
// convert to seconds
let timeInMilliseconds = 1352101337001
let timeInSeconds = Double(timeInMilliseconds) / 1000
// get the Date
let dateTime = Date(timeIntervalSince1970: timeInSeconds)
// display the date and time
let formatter = DateFormatter()
formatter.timeStyle = .medium
formatter.dateStyle = .long
print(formatter.string(from: dateTime)) // November 5, 2012 at 3:42:17 PM
Notes
- Since Java dates are stored as
long
integers in milliseconds since 1970 this works. However, make sure this assumption is true before just converting any old integer to a date using the method above. If you are converting a time interval in seconds then don't divide by 1000, of course.
- There are other ways to do the conversion and display the string. See this fuller explanation.