ios - How do I split the current time into 3 strings; hours, minutes, and seconds -

i'm making clock app, , want display current time, components (hours minutes, seconds) spaced out. think way separate time 3 strings. how do that?

- (void)updatetime {      [updatetimer invalidate];     updatetimer = nil;      currenttime = [nsdate date];     nsdateformatter *timeformatter = [[nsdateformatter alloc] init];     [timeformatter settimestyle:nsdateformattermediumstyle];     lbltime.text = [timeformatter stringfromdate:currenttime];      updatetimer = [nstimer scheduledtimerwithtimeinterval:0.01 target:self selector:@selector(updatetime) userinfo:nil repeats:yes];  } 

a couple things here:

1 ) if want running timer, don't invalidate each time "updatetime" called (and call scheduledtimerwithtimeinterval: once... instead of @ end of each time "updatetime" called).

2 ) looks have single label displaying time. should make timeformatter ivar (instance variable, it's created , set once) , can set format via:

timeformatter.dateformat = @"hh:mm:ss"; 

and should set.

your new updatetime method this:

- (void)updatetime {         currenttime = [nsdate date];     lbltime.text = [timeformatter stringfromdate:currenttime];     } 

3 ) if want 3 different labels, need declare iboutlets 3 labels , have 3 different date formatters. example:

@interface yourviewcontroller : uiviewcontroller () {     iboutlet uilabel * hourlabel; // need connect these in xib/storyboard     iboutlet uilabel * minutelabel;     iboutlet uilabel * secondlabel;      nsdateformatter * hourformatter;     nsdateformatter * minuteformatter;     nsdateformatter * secondformatter; } 

then, in "viewdidload:" method, set formatters:

hourformatter = [[nsdateformatter alloc] init; hourformatter.dateformatter = @"hh"; minuteformatter = [[nsdateformatter alloc] init; minuteformatter.dateformatter = @"mm"; secondformatter = [[nsdateformatter alloc] init; secondformatter.dateformatter = @"ss"; 

and finally, in "updatetime" method:

- (void)updatetime {         currenttime = [nsdate date];     if(hourformatter)     {         if(hourlabel)         {             hourlabel.text = [hourformatter stringfromdate: currenttime];         } else {             nslog( @"you need connect hourlabel outlet in storyboard or xib" );         }     } else {         nslog( @"you need allocate , init , set hourformatter");     }     minutelabel.text = [minuteformatter stringfromdate: currenttime];     secondlabel.text = [secondformatter stringfromdate: currenttime]; }