Get time only of next iOS local notification

Question

What is the best way to get the time of the next local notification set for my app?

I know the following loop can be used to get notifications, but does this always sort in time order so I could just get time of item [0], or is it in order of when they were added? And how can just time be pulled from this? Will I need to get whole date and format the time out, or is there a better way?

UIApplication *app = [UIApplication sharedApplication];
NSArray *eventArray = [app scheduledLocalNotifications];
for (int i=0; i<[eventArray count]; i++)
{
    UILocalNotification* oneEvent = [eventArray objectAtIndex:i];
    //oneEvent is a local notification
    //get time of first one
}

Many thanks!

Sam

Answer 1

This is really two problems. First, how to get the next notification. Second, how to get just the time components of that notification's date.

Number one, sorting an array by a date property of the contained objects

NSSortDescriptor * fireDateDesc = [NSSortDescriptor sortDescriptorWithKey:@"fireDate" ascending:YES];
NSArray * notifications = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] scheduledLocalNotifications] sortedArrayUsingDescriptors:@[fireDateDesc]]
UILocalNotification * nextNote =  [notifications objectAtIndex:0];

Two, get just the hours and minutes from the date

NSDateComponents * comps = [[NSCalendar currentCalendar] components:(NSHourCalendarUnit|NSMinuteCalendarUnit|NSSecondCalendarUnit) 
                                                           fromDate:[notification fireDate]];
// Now you have [comps hour]; [comps minute]; [comps second];

// Or if you just need a string, use NSDateFormatter:
NSDateFormatter * formatter = [NSDateFormatter new];
[formatter setDateFormat:@"HH:mm:ss"];
NSString * timeForDisplay = [formatter stringFromDate:[notification fireDate]];