Problem with negative date on iPad and not on simulator

Question

I'm working on an history application so I need to cope with date before and after JC.

I'm trying to parse a string with the form "01/01/-200" but it returns a null date while it's working with "01/01/200".

Here is my code :

NSDateFormatter* dateFormatter = [[[NSDateFormatter alloc]init] autorelease];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"dd/MM/y"]; // @TODO Get negative date
[dateFormatter setLenient:NO];

NSDate* date = [dateFormatter dateFromString:dateString];
return date;

I also try using with the form "01/01/200 BC" setDateFormat:@"dd/MM/y G" but I can't make it work neither. As mvds suggests in his answer, I tried the format "01/01/200 BC" on the simulator, and it's working... the problem only occurs on my iPad (version 3.2.1)

Do you have an idea how to do this properly ?

Answer 1

I just tried this:

NSDateFormatter* dateFormatter = [[[NSDateFormatter alloc]init] autorelease];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"dd/MM/y G"];
NSDate *date = [dateFormatter dateFromString:@"01/01/200 BC"];
NSLog(@"refdate %@",[dateFormatter stringFromDate:date]);
date = [date addTimeInterval:24*3600*365*2];
NSLog(@"2 years later %@",[dateFormatter stringFromDate:date]);

which outputs:

refdate 01/01/200 BC
2 years later 01/01/198 BC

This is on 3.2, iPad simulator, so not the most recent SDK, but iPad nonetheless. Do you get different results, running this?

Answer 2

I finally find the trick. The problem is that my iPad is in French so the Era has a different format :

• BC is "av. J.-C."
• AD is "ap. J.-C."

So I just had to change my XML file to get the correct format when parsing.

In order to display my date in the AD-BC format, I just convert it afterward :

+ (NSString*) convertIntoBCADString:(NSString*) originalString 
{
    NSString* newString = [originalString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"av. J.-C." withString:@"BC"];
    return [newString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"ap. J.-C." withString:@"AD"]; 
}