PHP : Dates and Times - [3.12] Calculating Time with Time Zones

3.12.1 Problem

You need to calculate times in different time zones. For example, you want to give users information adjusted to their local time, not the local time of your server.

3.12.2 Solution

For simple calculations, you can explicitly add or subtract the offsets between two time zones:

// If local time is EST
$time_parts = localtime();
// California (PST) is three hours earlier
$california_time_parts = localtime(time() - 3 * 3600);

On Unix-based systems, if you don't know the offsets between time zones, just set the TZ environment variable to your target time zone:

putenv('TZ=PST8PDT');
$california_time_parts = localtime();

3.12.3 Discussion

Before we sink too deeply into the ins and outs of time zones, we want to pass along the disclaimer that the U.S. Naval Observatory offers at http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/tzones.html. Namely, official worldwide time-zone information is somewhat fragile "because nations are sovereign powers that can and do change their timekeeping systems as they see fit." So, remembering that we are at the mercy of the vagaries of international relations, here are some ways to cope with Earth's many time zones.

For a relatively simple treatment of offsets between time zones, use an array in your program that has the various time zones' offsets from UTC. Once you determine what time zone your user is in, just add that offset to the appropriate UTC time and the functions that print out UTC time (e.g., gmdate( ), gmstrftime( )) can print out the correct adjusted time.

// Find the current time 
$now = time();

// California is 8 hours behind UTC
$now += $pc_timezones['PST'];

// Use gmdate() or gmstrftime() to print California-appropriate time
print gmstrftime('%c',$now);

The previous code uses this $pc_timezones array, which contains offsets from UTC:

// From Perl's Time::Timezone
$pc_timezones = array(
  'GMT'  =>   0,           // Greenwich Mean
  'UTC'  =>   0,           // Universal (Coordinated)
  'WET'  =>   0,           // Western European
  'WAT'  =>  -1*3600,      // West Africa
  'AT'   =>  -2*3600,      // Azores
  'NFT'  =>  -3*3600-1800, // Newfoundland
  'AST'  =>  -4*3600,      // Atlantic Standard
  'EST'  =>  -5*3600,      // Eastern Standard
  'CST'  =>  -6*3600,      // Central Standard
  'MST'  =>  -7*3600,      // Mountain Standard
  'PST'  =>  -8*3600,      // Pacific Standard
  'YST'  =>  -9*3600,      // Yukon Standard
  'HST'  => -10*3600,      // Hawaii Standard
  'CAT'  => -10*3600,      // Central Alaska
  'AHST' => -10*3600,      // Alaska-Hawaii Standard
  'NT'   => -11*3600,      // Nome
  'IDLW' => -12*3600,      // International Date Line West
  'CET'  =>  +1*3600,      // Central European
  'MET'  =>  +1*3600,      // Middle European
  'MEWT' =>  +1*3600,      // Middle European Winter
  'SWT'  =>  +1*3600,      // Swedish Winter
  'FWT'  =>  +1*3600,      // French Winter
  'EET'  =>  +2*3600,      // Eastern Europe, USSR Zone 1
  'BT'   =>  +3*3600,      // Baghdad, USSR Zone 2
  'IT'   =>  +3*3600+1800, // Iran
  'ZP4'  =>  +4*3600,      // USSR Zone 3
  'ZP5'  =>  +5*3600,      // USSR Zone 4
  'IST'  =>  +5*3600+1800, // Indian Standard
  'ZP6'  =>  +6*3600,      // USSR Zone 5
  'SST'  =>  +7*3600,      // South Sumatra, USSR Zone 6
  'WAST' =>  +7*3600,      // West Australian Standard
  'JT'   =>  +7*3600+1800, // Java 
  'CCT'  =>  +8*3600,      // China Coast, USSR Zone 7
  'JST'  =>  +9*3600,      // Japan Standard, USSR Zone 8
  'CAST' =>  +9*3600+1800, // Central Australian Standard
  'EAST' => +10*3600,      // Eastern Australian Standard
  'GST'  => +10*3600,      // Guam Standard, USSR Zone 9
  'NZT'  => +12*3600,      // New Zealand
  'NZST' => +12*3600,      // New Zealand Standard
  'IDLE' => +12*3600       // International Date Line East
);

On Unix systems, you can use the zoneinfo library to do the conversions. This makes your code more compact and also transparently handles DST, as discussed in Section 3.13.

To take advantage of zoneinfo in PHP, do all your internal date math with epoch timestamps. Generate them from time parts with the pc_mktime( ) function shown in Section 3-2.

Example 3-2. pc_mktime( )

function pc_mktime($tz,$hr,$min,$sec,$mon,$day,$yr) {
    putenv("TZ=$tz");
    $a = mktime($hr,$min,$sec,$mon,$day,$yr);
    putenv('TZ=EST5EDT');   // change EST5EDT to your server's time zone!
    return $a;
}

Calling putenv( ) before mktime( ) fools the system functions mktime( ) uses into thinking they're in a different time zone. After the call to mktime( ), the correct time zone has to be restored. On the East Coast of the United States, that's EST5EDT. Change this to the appropriate value for your computer's location (see Table 3-5).

Time parts are turned into epoch timestamps by pc_mktime( ). Its counterpart, to turn epoch timestamps into formatted time strings and time parts, is pc_strftime( ), shown in Example 3-3.

Example 3-3. pc_strftime( )

function pc_strftime($tz,$format,$timestamp) {
    putenv("TZ=$tz");
    $a = strftime($format,$timestamp);
    putenv('TZ=EST5EDT');   // change EST5EDT to your server's time zone!
    return $a;
}

This example uses the same system-function-fooling pc_mktime( ) does to get the right results from strftime( ).

The great thing about these functions is that you don't have to worry about the offsets from UTC of different time zones, whether DST is in effect, or any other irregularities of time-zone differences. You just set the appropriate zone and let your system's libraries do the rest.

Note that the value of the $tz variable in both these functions should not be a time-zone name but a zoneinfo zone. zoneinfo zones are more specific than time zones, because they correspond to particular places. Table 3-5 contains mappings for appropriate zoneinfo zones for some UTC offsets. The last column indicates whether the zone observes DST.

Table 3-5. zoneinfo zones

UTC offset (hours)	UTC offset (seconds)	zoneinfo zone	DST?
-12	-43200	Etc/GMT+12	No
-11	-39600	Pacific/Midway	No
-10	-36000	US/Aleutian	Yes
-10	-36000	Pacific/Honolulu	No
-9	-32400	America/Anchorage	Yes
-9	-32400	Etc/GMT+9	No
-8	-28800	PST8PDT	Yes
-8	-28800	America/Dawson_Creek	No
-7	-25200	MST7MDT	Yes
-7	-25200	MST	No
-6	-21600	CST6CDT	Yes
-6	-21600	Canada/Saskatchewan	No
-5	-18000	EST5EDT	Yes
-5	-18000	EST	No
-4	-14400	America/Halifax	Yes
-4	-14400	America/Puerto_Rico	No
-3.5	-12600	America/St_Johns	Yes
-3	-10800	America/Buenos_Aires	No
0	0	Europe/London	Yes
0	0	GMT	No
1	3600	CET	Yes
1	3600	GMT-1	No
2	7200	EET	No
2	7200	GMT-2	No
3	10800	Asia/Baghdad	Yes
3	10800	GMT-3	No
3.5	12600	Asia/Tehran	Yes
4	14400	Asia/Dubai	No
4	14400	Asia/Baku	Yes
4.5	16200	Asia/Kabul	No
5	18000	Asia/Tashkent	No
5.5	19800	Asia/Calcutta	No
5.75	20700	Asia/Katmandu	No
6	21600	Asia/Novosibirsk	Yes
6	21600	Etc/GMT-6	No
6.5	23400	Asia/Rangoon	No
7	25200	Asia/Jakarta	No
8	28800	Hongkong	No
9	32400	Japan	No
9.5	34200	Australia/Darwin	No
10	36000	Australia/Sydney	Yes
10	36000	Pacific/Guam	No
12	43200	Etc/GMT-13	No
12	43200	Pacific/Auckland	Yes

Countries around the world don't begin and end DST observance on the same days or at the same times. To calculate time appropriately for an international DST-observing location, pick a zoneinfo zone that matches your desired location as specifically as possible.