objective-c setting NSDate to current UTC

Question

is there an easy way to init an NSDate with the current UTC date/time?

Answer 1

[NSDate date];

You may want to create a category that does something like this:

-(NSString *)getUTCFormateDate:(NSDate *)localDate
{
    NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    NSTimeZone *timeZone = [NSTimeZone timeZoneWithName:@"UTC"];
    [dateFormatter setTimeZone:timeZone];
    [dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"];
    NSString *dateString = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:localDate];
    [dateFormatter release];
    return dateString;
}

Answer 2

NSDate is a reference to an interval from an absolute reference date, January 1, 2001 00:00 GMT. So the class method [NSDate now] will return a representation of that interval. To present that data in a textual format in UTC, just use the NSDateFormatter with the appropriate NSTimeZone (UTC) to render as needed.

Answer 3

You want an NSDate set to UTC. (Not sure why everyone is giving you "local date" or "NSString" values.)