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Question
· Jun 23

Convert zone time code in zone number

#ObjectScript #InterSystems IRIS

Hi all,

We're developing a medical appointment app that connects doctors' schedules to an appointment provider.

The provider is returning us the appointment in the following format:

Thu Jul 03 08:20:00 CEST 2025

It means, 03 july 2025 at 08:20:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

But we need the following format:

2025-07-03 08:20:00+02:00

Is there any option to convert zone time code (CEST) to a UTC+x ?

How to convert zone time code (CEST, CET, ET, EDT, etc..) in its zone time in UTC (UTC+2, UTC+1, UTC-5, etc..) ?

 

Best regards

Product version: IRIS 2021.1
$ZV: IRIS for Windows (x86-64) 2021.1.3 (Build 389U) Wed Feb 15 2023 14:50:06 EST
Discussion (4)3
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Evgeny Shvarov · Jun 23

I think it is a good use-case for embedded python. I asked gpt and it suggested the following python code:

from datetime import datetime
from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo

# Original string
input_str = "Thu Jul 03 08:20:00 CEST 2025"

# Strip the abbreviation since it's not useful for parsing
# Replace it with an IANA timezone
# Let's assume "CEST" corresponds to Europe/Paris
input_str_cleaned = input_str.replace("CEST", "").strip()

# Parse the datetime
dt_naive = datetime.strptime(input_str_cleaned, "%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y")

# Localize to the correct zone
dt_aware = dt_naive.replace(tzinfo=ZoneInfo("Europe/Paris"))

# Format in ISO format with UTC offset
print(dt_aware.isoformat())  # e.g., '2025-07-03T08:20:00+02:00'

Also it suggested to make a mapping for CEST/CET:

tz_abbreviation_map = {
    "CEST": "Europe/Paris",
    "CET": "Europe/Paris",
    "EDT": "America/New_York",
    "EST": "America/New_York",
    "PST": "America/Los_Angeles",
    # Add more mappings as needed
}
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Kurro Lopez · Jun 25

Thanks, Evgeny, as always.

It's not a bad idea to use an abbreviation map and Python for this. I can create a table with the code name and replace it with the UTC value.

https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zones/

This is a complete list of time zone codes and their UTC values.

What's the problem? Some are duplicated.

According to this list, Thursday, July 3rd at 08:20:00 AST, 2025 could be:

AST: Arabia Standard Time - UTC+03

AST: Atlantic Standard Time - UTC-04

Perhaps there's a mistake in the list.

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Julian Matthews · Jun 24

If you're looking to simply convert timezone codes to the UTC offset, I'd setup a simple utility that returns the desired string based on a case statement.

Something like:

ClassMethod DisplayTimezoneToUTCOffset(pInput as %String) As %String{
    Quit $CASE($ZCONVERT(pInput,"U"),
    "CEST":"+02:00",
    "CET":"+01:00",
    "BST":"+01:00",
    :"")
}

If you then want to build the entire string, you could do similar to above for the months, and then have the following:

Class Demo.Utils.ExampleUtils.TimeConvert
{
ClassMethod DisplayDateTimeToLiteral(pInput as %String) As %String{
    // Deconstruct the input string into it's logical parts.
    // Variables starting d are "display" values that will be converted later.
    Set DayOfWeek = $P(pInput," ",1) //Not used
    Set dMonth = $P(pInput," ",2)
    Set Day = $P(pInput," ",3)
    Set Time = $P(pInput," ",4)
    Set dTimeZone = $P(pInput," ",5)
    Set Year = $P(pInput," ",6)

    //Return final timestamp
    Quit Year_"-"_..DisplayMonthToLiteral(dMonth)_"-"_Day_" "_Time_..DisplayTimezoneToUTCOffset(dTimeZone)

}

ClassMethod DisplayTimezoneToUTCOffset(pInput as %String) As %String{

    Quit $CASE($ZCONVERT(pInput,"U"),
    "CEST":"+02:00",
    "CET":"+01:00",
    "BST":"+01:00",
    :"")
}

ClassMethod DisplayMonthToLiteral(pInput as %String) As %String{

    Quit $CASE($ZCONVERT(pInput,"U"),
    "JAN":"01",
    "FEB":"02",
    "MAR":"03",
    //etc. etc.
    "JUL":"07",
    :"")
}

}

Which then gives the following:

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