Getting computer's UTC offset in Python
Question:
In Python, how do you find what UTC time offset the computer is set to?
Answers:
gmtime()
will return the UTC time and localtime()
will return the local time so subtracting the two should give you the utc offset.
From https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/gmtime.html
The gmtime() function shall convert the time in seconds since the Epoch pointed to by timer into a broken-down time, expressed as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
So, despite the name gmttime
, the function returns UTC.
import time
print -time.timezone
It prints UTC offset in seconds (to take into account Daylight Saving Time (DST) see time.altzone:
is_dst = time.daylight and time.localtime().tm_isdst > 0
utc_offset = - (time.altzone if is_dst else time.timezone)
where utc offset is defined via: “To get local time, add utc offset to utc time.”
In Python 3.3+ there is tm_gmtoff
attribute if underlying C library supports it:
utc_offset = time.localtime().tm_gmtoff
Note: time.daylight
may give a wrong result in some edge cases.
tm_gmtoff
is used automatically by datetime if it is available on Python 3.3+:
from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone
d = datetime.now(timezone.utc).astimezone()
utc_offset = d.utcoffset() // timedelta(seconds=1)
To get the current UTC offset in a way that workarounds the time.daylight
issue and that works even if tm_gmtoff
is not available, @jts’s suggestion to substruct the local and UTC time can be used:
import time
from datetime import datetime
ts = time.time()
utc_offset = (datetime.fromtimestamp(ts) -
datetime.utcfromtimestamp(ts)).total_seconds()
To get UTC offset for past/future dates, pytz
timezones could be used:
from datetime import datetime
from tzlocal import get_localzone # $ pip install tzlocal
tz = get_localzone() # local timezone
d = datetime.now(tz) # or some other local date
utc_offset = d.utcoffset().total_seconds()
It works during DST transitions, it works for past/future dates even if the local timezone had different UTC offset at the time e.g., Europe/Moscow timezone in 2010-2015 period.
I like:
>>> strftime('%z')
'-0700'
I tried JTS’ answer first, but it gave me the wrong result. I’m in -0700 now, but it was saying I was in -0800. But I had to do some conversion before I could get something I could subtract, so maybe the answer was more incomplete than incorrect.
Here is some python3 code with just datetime and time as imports. HTH
>>> from datetime import datetime
>>> import time
>>> def date2iso(thedate):
... strdate = thedate.strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S")
... minute = (time.localtime().tm_gmtoff / 60) % 60
... hour = ((time.localtime().tm_gmtoff / 60) - minute) / 60
... utcoffset = "%.2d%.2d" %(hour, minute)
... if utcoffset[0] != '-':
... utcoffset = '+' + utcoffset
... return strdate + utcoffset
...
>>> date2iso(datetime.fromtimestamp(time.time()))
'2015-04-06T23:56:30-0400'
This works for me:
if time.daylight > 0:
return time.altzone
else:
return time.timezone
Create a Unix Timestamp with UTC Corrected Timezone
This simple function will make it easy for you to get the current time from a MySQL/PostgreSQL database date
object.
def timestamp(date='2018-05-01'):
return int(time.mktime(
datetime.datetime.strptime( date, "%Y-%m-%d" ).timetuple()
)) + int(time.strftime('%z')) * 6 * 6
Example Output
>>> timestamp('2018-05-01')
1525132800
>>> timestamp('2018-06-01')
1527811200
hours_delta = (time.mktime(time.localtime()) - time.mktime(time.gmtime())) / 60 / 60
the time module has a timezone offset, given as an integer in “seconds west of UTC”
import time
time.timezone
You can use the datetime
and dateutil
libraries to get the offset as a timedelta
object:
>>> from datetime import datetime
>>> from dateutil.tz import tzlocal
>>>
>>> # From a datetime object
>>> current_time = datetime.now(tzlocal())
>>> current_time.utcoffset()
datetime.timedelta(seconds=7200)
>>> current_time.dst()
datetime.timedelta(seconds=3600)
>>>
>>> # From a tzlocal object
>>> time_zone = tzlocal()
>>> time_zone.utcoffset(datetime.now())
datetime.timedelta(seconds=7200)
>>> time_zone.dst(datetime.now())
datetime.timedelta(seconds=3600)
>>>
>>> print('Your UTC offset is {:+g}'.format(current_time.utcoffset().total_seconds()/3600))
Your UTC offset is +2
In Python, how do you find what UTC time offset the computer is set to?
gmtime()
will return the UTC time and localtime()
will return the local time so subtracting the two should give you the utc offset.
From https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/gmtime.html
The gmtime() function shall convert the time in seconds since the Epoch pointed to by timer into a broken-down time, expressed as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
So, despite the name gmttime
, the function returns UTC.
import time
print -time.timezone
It prints UTC offset in seconds (to take into account Daylight Saving Time (DST) see time.altzone:
is_dst = time.daylight and time.localtime().tm_isdst > 0
utc_offset = - (time.altzone if is_dst else time.timezone)
where utc offset is defined via: “To get local time, add utc offset to utc time.”
In Python 3.3+ there is tm_gmtoff
attribute if underlying C library supports it:
utc_offset = time.localtime().tm_gmtoff
Note: time.daylight
may give a wrong result in some edge cases.
tm_gmtoff
is used automatically by datetime if it is available on Python 3.3+:
from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone
d = datetime.now(timezone.utc).astimezone()
utc_offset = d.utcoffset() // timedelta(seconds=1)
To get the current UTC offset in a way that workarounds the time.daylight
issue and that works even if tm_gmtoff
is not available, @jts’s suggestion to substruct the local and UTC time can be used:
import time
from datetime import datetime
ts = time.time()
utc_offset = (datetime.fromtimestamp(ts) -
datetime.utcfromtimestamp(ts)).total_seconds()
To get UTC offset for past/future dates, pytz
timezones could be used:
from datetime import datetime
from tzlocal import get_localzone # $ pip install tzlocal
tz = get_localzone() # local timezone
d = datetime.now(tz) # or some other local date
utc_offset = d.utcoffset().total_seconds()
It works during DST transitions, it works for past/future dates even if the local timezone had different UTC offset at the time e.g., Europe/Moscow timezone in 2010-2015 period.
I like:
>>> strftime('%z')
'-0700'
I tried JTS’ answer first, but it gave me the wrong result. I’m in -0700 now, but it was saying I was in -0800. But I had to do some conversion before I could get something I could subtract, so maybe the answer was more incomplete than incorrect.
Here is some python3 code with just datetime and time as imports. HTH
>>> from datetime import datetime
>>> import time
>>> def date2iso(thedate):
... strdate = thedate.strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S")
... minute = (time.localtime().tm_gmtoff / 60) % 60
... hour = ((time.localtime().tm_gmtoff / 60) - minute) / 60
... utcoffset = "%.2d%.2d" %(hour, minute)
... if utcoffset[0] != '-':
... utcoffset = '+' + utcoffset
... return strdate + utcoffset
...
>>> date2iso(datetime.fromtimestamp(time.time()))
'2015-04-06T23:56:30-0400'
This works for me:
if time.daylight > 0:
return time.altzone
else:
return time.timezone
Create a Unix Timestamp with UTC Corrected Timezone
This simple function will make it easy for you to get the current time from a MySQL/PostgreSQL database date
object.
def timestamp(date='2018-05-01'):
return int(time.mktime(
datetime.datetime.strptime( date, "%Y-%m-%d" ).timetuple()
)) + int(time.strftime('%z')) * 6 * 6
Example Output
>>> timestamp('2018-05-01')
1525132800
>>> timestamp('2018-06-01')
1527811200
hours_delta = (time.mktime(time.localtime()) - time.mktime(time.gmtime())) / 60 / 60
the time module has a timezone offset, given as an integer in “seconds west of UTC”
import time
time.timezone
You can use the datetime
and dateutil
libraries to get the offset as a timedelta
object:
>>> from datetime import datetime
>>> from dateutil.tz import tzlocal
>>>
>>> # From a datetime object
>>> current_time = datetime.now(tzlocal())
>>> current_time.utcoffset()
datetime.timedelta(seconds=7200)
>>> current_time.dst()
datetime.timedelta(seconds=3600)
>>>
>>> # From a tzlocal object
>>> time_zone = tzlocal()
>>> time_zone.utcoffset(datetime.now())
datetime.timedelta(seconds=7200)
>>> time_zone.dst(datetime.now())
datetime.timedelta(seconds=3600)
>>>
>>> print('Your UTC offset is {:+g}'.format(current_time.utcoffset().total_seconds()/3600))
Your UTC offset is +2