How to programmatically build NSArray of localized calendar month names?

Question

I am in the process of localizing/internationalizing my iPhone app and have a question. In one place in my app, I show a list of the 12 months of the year. As it is in its currently non-localized state, I simply have the months January - December hard-coded into an NSArray. I'd like to use NSCalendar to programmatically build this NSArray of months based on the user's locale. What is the best way to do this?

Answer 1

You can get the localized name of the month from the NSDateFormatter:

NSDateFormatter *df = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
for ( int i = 0; i < 12; ++i ) {
    NSString *monthName = [[df monthSymbols] objectAtIndex:i];
    [...]
}
[df release];

Answer 2

Swift version....tried in playground

Provide the locale or use currentlocale

var str = "Hello, playground"

var formatter = NSDateFormatter()

formatter.locale = NSLocale(localeIdentifier: "sv_SE") 
//formatter.locale = NSLocale.currentLocale() // use this to find it automatically

print(formatter.monthSymbols)

RESULT

"["januari", "februari", "mars", "april", "maj", "juni", "juli", "augusti", "september", "oktober", "november", "december"]\n"

Answer 3

No need to do the iteration, just get the months directly:

NSDateFormatter dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
NSLog(@"Months = %@", dateFormatter.monthSymbols);

Swift:

let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
print("Months = \(dateFormatter.monthSymbols)")