iOS can only count 24,855 days

Question

iOS can only count 24,855 days

There are a lot of programs and apps I guess I should say that I use on my iPad which involve dates and counting and keeping track of time between days. However I just discovered and had it confirmed by developer that iOS only enables a maximum count in days of 24,855. That is just over 68 years. I hope that is not long enough to count my entire anticipated lifespan.

Why is there this limitation? Is there way anyway around it? Is this something that should be filed as a bug report?

Thanks for any comments here including anyone that can tell me why even if it's in very technical terms why this limitation and also any comments about people that are verifying this or maybe have a workaround.

Best regards,

Steve

14 February 2013

iPad (3rd gen) Wi-Fi, iOS 6

Posted on Feb 14, 2013 3:15 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 14, 2013 4:00 AM in response to Stephen Schulte1

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but it is a common thing with a lot of databases where time is actually measured in seconds. Since they are stored as 4-bit HEX numbers, that limits days to 86,400s-2,147,472,000s.

2147472000 seconds = 24,855 days.

To allow more, they would have to store more that a 4-bit number, which is just deemed wasteful in terms of system resources, hence the limit. It is arbitrary but is seen as a reasonable compromise in terms of efficiency of storage of the time value while still offering sufficient time range for most purposes.

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Answer 2

Feb 14, 2013 4:51 AM in response to Michael Black

I am learning something every day! Thank you for the fast and detailed feedback here.

I am calling this solved but would welcome any other comments or information on this interesting issue.

Thanks again!

Best regards,

Steve

14 February 2013

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