[SOLVED] Converting a Gregorian date to Julian Day Count in Objective C

Converting a Gregorian date to Julian Day Count in Objective C

I need Objective C method for converting Gregorian date to Julian days same as this PHP method (GregorianToJD).

Solution

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_day, the Julian day number for January 1, 2000, was 2,451,545. So you can compute the number of days between your date and this reference date. For example (Jan 1, 2014):

NSUInteger julianDayFor01012000 = 2451545;
NSCalendar *cal = [[NSCalendar alloc] initWithCalendarIdentifier:NSGregorianCalendar];
[cal setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone timeZoneForSecondsFromGMT:0]];
NSDateComponents *comp = [[NSDateComponents alloc] init];
comp.year = 2014;
comp.month = 1;
comp.day = 1;
NSDate *date = [cal dateFromComponents:comp];
comp.year = 2000;
comp.month = 1;
comp.day = 1;
NSDate *ref = [cal dateFromComponents:comp];

NSDateComponents *diff = [cal components:NSDayCalendarUnit fromDate:ref toDate:date options:0];
NSInteger julianDays = diff.day + julianDayFor01012000;
NSLog(@"%ld", (long)julianDays);
// Output: 2456659

This gives the same result as http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.gregoriantojd.php:

<?php
$jd = GregorianToJD(1, 1, 2014);
echo "$jd\n";
?>

Inverse direction (Julian days to Gregorian year/month/day):

NSInteger julianDays = 2456659; // From above example
NSUInteger julianDayFor01012000 = 2451545;
NSCalendar *cal = [[NSCalendar alloc] initWithCalendarIdentifier:NSGregorianCalendar];
[cal setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone timeZoneForSecondsFromGMT:0]];
NSDateComponents *comp = [[NSDateComponents alloc] init];
comp.year = 2000;
comp.month = 1;
comp.day = 1;
NSDate *ref = [cal dateFromComponents:comp];
NSDateComponents *diff = [[NSDateComponents alloc] init];
diff.day = julianDays - julianDayFor01012000;

NSDate *date = [cal dateByAddingComponents:diff toDate:ref options:0];
comp = [cal components:NSDayCalendarUnit|NSMonthCalendarUnit|NSYearCalendarUnit fromDate:date];
NSLog(@"%04ld-%02ld-%02ld", (long)comp.year, (long)comp.month, (long)comp.day);
// Output: 2014-01-01

UPDATE: As Hot Licks correctly stated in a comment, it is easier to use a date formatter with the "g" format:

NSCalendar *cal = [[NSCalendar alloc] initWithCalendarIdentifier:NSGregorianCalendar];
NSDateComponents *comp = [[NSDateComponents alloc] init];
comp.year = 2014;
comp.month = 1;
comp.day = 1;
NSDate *date = [cal dateFromComponents:comp];
NSDateFormatter *fmt = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[fmt setDateFormat:@"g"];
NSInteger julianDays = [[fmt stringFromDate:date] integerValue];
NSLog(@"%ld", (long)julianDays);
// Output: 2456659

And for the inverse direction:

NSInteger julianDays = 2456659;
NSDateFormatter *fmt = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[fmt setDateFormat:@"g"];
NSDate *date = [fmt dateFromString:[@(julianDays) stringValue]];
NSCalendar *cal = [[NSCalendar alloc] initWithCalendarIdentifier:NSGregorianCalendar];
NSDateComponents *comp = [cal components:NSDayCalendarUnit|NSMonthCalendarUnit|NSYearCalendarUnit fromDate:date];
NSLog(@"%04ld-%02ld-%02ld", (long)comp.year, (long)comp.month, (long)comp.day);
// Output: 2014-01-01