Trouble comparing TimeInterval to Integer

Question

Hello,

I'm trying to compare the timeInterval to an integer value, so I try and convert the timeInterval to an integer and compare. But I'm getting an error 'Cannot convert to a pointer type':

NSTimeInterval timeInterval = [startTime timeIntervalSinceNow];
int intSecondsElapsed = [timeInterval intValue]; // Error here !!!!

if ([counterInt != intSecondsElapsed])
{
    // Do something here...
}

How would go about doing this ?

EDIT: Include more detail relating to Execute error.

NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    //[formatter setDateFormat:@"HH:mm:ss"];
    [formatter setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"];
    startTime = [NSDate date];
    [formatter release];


if ([deviceType isEqualToString:@"iPhone 4"]||[deviceType isEqualToString:@"iPhone Simulator"])
    {
        int intSecondsElapsed = (int)[startTime timeIntervalSinceNow];
        if (counterInt != intSecondsElapsed)
        {
            counterInt = intSecondsElapsed;
        }
    }

Answer 1

NSTimeInterval is defined as double so if you want to convert it to int you can make simple type cast

NSTimeInterval timeInterval = [startTime timeIntervalSinceNow];
int intSecondsElapsed = (int)timeInterval;

or simply

int intSecondsElapsed = (int)[startTime timeIntervalSinceNow];

Edit: If you initialize and use your startTime variable in different functions you need to retain it then. [NSDate date] returns autoreleased object so it becomes invalid outside the scope it was created. To make things easier declare a property with retain attribute for startTime and create it using

self.startTime = [NSDate date];

And don't forget to release it in your class dealloc method.

Answer 2

What Vladimir said is exactly right, I just wanted to add that the reason that you were seeing the error "Cannot convert to a pointer type" is because you tried to send the message intValue to timeInterval, which you can only do if what you're sending the message to is a pointer to an object that will respond to it. The compiler tried to treat timeInterval as a pointer, but failed.