How to check iOS version?

Question

I want to check if the iOS version of the device is greater than 3.1.3 I tried things like:

[[UIDevice currentDevice].systemVersion         


        

Answer 1

In general it's better to ask if an object can perform a given selector, rather than checking a version number to decide if it must be present.

When this is not an option, you do need to be a bit careful here because [@"5.0" compare:@"5" options:NSNumericSearch] returns NSOrderedDescending which might well not be intended at all; I might expect NSOrderedSame here. This is at least a theoretical concern, one that is worth defending against in my opinion.

Also worth considering is the possibility of a bad version input which can not reasonably be compared to. Apple supplies the three predefined constants NSOrderedAscending, NSOrderedSame and NSOrderedDescending but I can think of a use for some thing called NSOrderedUnordered in the event I can't compare two things and I want to return a value indicating this.

What's more, it's not impossible that Apple will some day expand their three predefined constants to allow a variety of return values, making a comparison != NSOrderedAscending unwise.

With this said, consider the following code.

typedef enum {kSKOrderedNotOrdered = -2, kSKOrderedAscending = -1, kSKOrderedSame = 0, kSKOrderedDescending = 1} SKComparisonResult;

@interface SKComparator : NSObject
+ (SKComparisonResult)comparePointSeparatedVersionNumber:(NSString *)vOne withPointSeparatedVersionNumber:(NSString *)vTwo;
@end

@implementation SKComparator
+ (SKComparisonResult)comparePointSeparatedVersionNumber:(NSString *)vOne withPointSeparatedVersionNumber:(NSString *)vTwo {
  if (!vOne || !vTwo || [vOne length] < 1 || [vTwo length] < 1 || [vOne rangeOfString:@".."].location != NSNotFound ||
    [vTwo rangeOfString:@".."].location != NSNotFound) {
    return SKOrderedNotOrdered;
  }
  NSCharacterSet *numericalCharSet = [NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@".0123456789"];
  NSString *vOneTrimmed = [vOne stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:numericalCharSet];
  NSString *vTwoTrimmed = [vTwo stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:numericalCharSet];
  if ([vOneTrimmed length] > 0 || [vTwoTrimmed length] > 0) {
    return SKOrderedNotOrdered;
  }
  NSArray *vOneArray = [vOne componentsSeparatedByString:@"."];
  NSArray *vTwoArray = [vTwo componentsSeparatedByString:@"."];
  for (NSUInteger i = 0; i < MIN([vOneArray count], [vTwoArray count]); i++) {
    NSInteger vOneInt = [[vOneArray objectAtIndex:i] intValue];
    NSInteger vTwoInt = [[vTwoArray objectAtIndex:i] intValue];
    if (vOneInt > vTwoInt) {
      return kSKOrderedDescending;
    } else if (vOneInt < vTwoInt) {
      return kSKOrderedAscending;
    }
  }
  if ([vOneArray count] > [vTwoArray count]) {
    for (NSUInteger i = [vTwoArray count]; i < [vOneArray count]; i++) {
      if ([[vOneArray objectAtIndex:i] intValue] > 0) {
        return kSKOrderedDescending;
      }
    }
  } else if ([vOneArray count] < [vTwoArray count]) {
    for (NSUInteger i = [vOneArray count]; i < [vTwoArray count]; i++) {
      if ([[vTwoArray objectAtIndex:i] intValue] > 0) {
        return kSKOrderedAscending;
      }
    }
  }
  return kSKOrderedSame;
}
@end