public abstract class

TimeZone

extends Object
implements Serializable Cloneable
java.lang.Object
   ↳ java.util.TimeZone
Known Direct Subclasses

Class Overview

TimeZone represents a time zone offset, and also figures out daylight savings.

Typically, you get a TimeZone using getDefault which creates a TimeZone based on the time zone where the program is running. For example, for a program running in Japan, getDefault creates a TimeZone object based on Japanese Standard Time.

You can also get a TimeZone using getTimeZone along with a time zone ID. For instance, the time zone ID for the U.S. Pacific Time zone is "America/Los_Angeles". So, you can get a U.S. Pacific Time TimeZone object with: 

 TimeZone tz = TimeZone.getTimeZone("America/Los_Angeles");
You can use the getAvailableIDs method to iterate through all the supported time zone IDs. You can then choose a supported ID to get a TimeZone. If the time zone you want is not represented by one of the supported IDs, then a custom time zone ID can be specified to produce a TimeZone. The syntax of a custom time zone ID is: 
 CustomID:
         GMT Sign Hours : Minutes
         GMT Sign Hours Minutes
         GMT Sign Hours
 Sign: one of
         + -
 Hours:
         Digit
         Digit Digit
 Minutes:
         Digit Digit
 Digit: one of
         0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Hours must be between 0 to 23 and Minutes must be between 00 to 59. For example, "GMT+10" and "GMT+0010" mean ten hours and ten minutes ahead of GMT, respectively.

The format is locale independent and digits must be taken from the Basic Latin block of the Unicode standard. No daylight saving time transition schedule can be specified with a custom time zone ID. If the specified string doesn't match the syntax, "GMT" is used.

When creating a TimeZone, the specified custom time zone ID is normalized in the following syntax: 

 NormalizedCustomID:
         GMT Sign TwoDigitHours : Minutes
 Sign: one of
         + -
 TwoDigitHours:
         Digit Digit
 Minutes:
         Digit Digit
 Digit: one of
         0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
For example, TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT-8").getID() returns "GMT-08:00".

Three-letter time zone IDs

For compatibility with JDK 1.1.x, some other three-letter time zone IDs (such as "PST", "CTT", "AST") are also supported. However, their use is deprecated because the same abbreviation is often used for multiple time zones (for example, "CST" could be U.S. "Central Standard Time" and "China Standard Time"), and the Java platform can then only recognize one of them.

See Also

Summary

Constants
int LONG A style specifier for getDisplayName() indicating a long name, such as "Pacific Standard Time."
int SHORT A style specifier for getDisplayName() indicating a short name, such as "PST."
Public Constructors
TimeZone()
Sole constructor.
Public Methods
Object clone()
Creates a copy of this TimeZone.
synchronized static String[] getAvailableIDs()
Gets all the available IDs supported.
synchronized static String[] getAvailableIDs(int rawOffset)
Gets the available IDs according to the given time zone offset in milliseconds.
int getDSTSavings()
Returns the amount of time to be added to local standard time to get local wall clock time.
static TimeZone getDefault()
Gets the default TimeZone for this host.
final String getDisplayName(Locale locale)
Returns a name of this time zone suitable for presentation to the user in the specified locale.
String getDisplayName(boolean daylight, int style, Locale locale)
Returns a name of this time zone suitable for presentation to the user in the specified locale.
final String getDisplayName()
Returns a name of this time zone suitable for presentation to the user in the default locale.
final String getDisplayName(boolean daylight, int style)
Returns a name of this time zone suitable for presentation to the user in the default locale.
String getID()
Gets the ID of this time zone.
abstract int getOffset(int era, int year, int month, int day, int dayOfWeek, int milliseconds)
Gets the time zone offset, for current date, modified in case of daylight savings.
int getOffset(long date)
Returns the offset of this time zone from UTC at the specified date.
abstract int getRawOffset()
Returns the amount of time in milliseconds to add to UTC to get standard time in this time zone.
synchronized static TimeZone getTimeZone(String ID)
Gets the TimeZone for the given ID.
boolean hasSameRules(TimeZone other)
Returns true if this zone has the same rule and offset as another zone.
abstract boolean inDaylightTime(Date date)
Queries if the given date is in daylight savings time in this time zone.
static void setDefault(TimeZone zone)
Sets the TimeZone that is returned by the getDefault method.
void setID(String ID)
Sets the time zone ID.
abstract void setRawOffset(int offsetMillis)
Sets the base time zone offset to GMT.
abstract boolean useDaylightTime()
Queries if this time zone uses daylight savings time.
[Expand]
Inherited Methods
From class java.lang.Object

Constants

public static final int LONG

A style specifier for getDisplayName() indicating a long name, such as "Pacific Standard Time."

See Also
Constant Value: 1 (0x00000001)

public static final int SHORT

A style specifier for getDisplayName() indicating a short name, such as "PST."

See Also
Constant Value: 0 (0x00000000)

Public Constructors

public TimeZone ()

Sole constructor. (For invocation by subclass constructors, typically implicit.)

Public Methods

public Object clone ()

Creates a copy of this TimeZone.

Returns
  • a clone of this TimeZone

public static synchronized String[] getAvailableIDs ()

Gets all the available IDs supported.

Returns
  • an array of IDs.

public static synchronized String[] getAvailableIDs (int rawOffset)

Gets the available IDs according to the given time zone offset in milliseconds.

Parameters
rawOffset the given time zone GMT offset in milliseconds.
Returns
  • an array of IDs, where the time zone for that ID has the specified GMT offset. For example, "America/Phoenix" and "America/Denver" both have GMT-07:00, but differ in daylight savings behavior.
See Also

public int getDSTSavings ()

Returns the amount of time to be added to local standard time to get local wall clock time.

The default implementation always returns 3600000 milliseconds (i.e., one hour) if this time zone observes Daylight Saving Time. Otherwise, 0 (zero) is returned.

If an underlying TimeZone implementation subclass supports historical Daylight Saving Time changes, this method returns the known latest daylight saving value.

Returns
  • the amount of saving time in milliseconds

public static TimeZone getDefault ()

Gets the default TimeZone for this host. The source of the default TimeZone may vary with implementation.

Returns
  • a default TimeZone.
See Also

public final String getDisplayName (Locale locale)

Returns a name of this time zone suitable for presentation to the user in the specified locale. This method returns the long name, not including daylight savings. If the display name is not available for the locale, then this method returns a string in the normalized custom ID format.

Parameters
locale the locale in which to supply the display name.
Returns
  • the human-readable name of this time zone in the given locale.

public String getDisplayName (boolean daylight, int style, Locale locale)

Returns a name of this time zone suitable for presentation to the user in the specified locale. If the display name is not available for the locale, then this method returns a string in the normalized custom ID format.

Parameters
daylight if true, return the daylight savings name.
style either LONG or SHORT
locale the locale in which to supply the display name.
Returns
  • the human-readable name of this time zone in the given locale.
Throws
IllegalArgumentException style is invalid.

public final String getDisplayName ()

Returns a name of this time zone suitable for presentation to the user in the default locale. This method returns the long name, not including daylight savings. If the display name is not available for the locale, then this method returns a string in the normalized custom ID format.

Returns
  • the human-readable name of this time zone in the default locale.

public final String getDisplayName (boolean daylight, int style)

Returns a name of this time zone suitable for presentation to the user in the default locale. If the display name is not available for the locale, then this method returns a string in the normalized custom ID format.

Parameters
daylight if true, return the daylight savings name.
style either LONG or SHORT
Returns
  • the human-readable name of this time zone in the default locale.

public String getID ()

Gets the ID of this time zone.

Returns
  • the ID of this time zone.

public abstract int getOffset (int era, int year, int month, int day, int dayOfWeek, int milliseconds)

Gets the time zone offset, for current date, modified in case of daylight savings. This is the offset to add to UTC to get local time.

This method returns a historically correct offset if an underlying TimeZone implementation subclass supports historical Daylight Saving Time schedule and GMT offset changes.

Parameters
era the era of the given date.
year the year in the given date.
month the month in the given date. Month is 0-based. e.g., 0 for January.
day the day-in-month of the given date.
dayOfWeek the day-of-week of the given date.
milliseconds the milliseconds in day in standard local time.
Returns
  • the offset in milliseconds to add to GMT to get local time.
See Also

public int getOffset (long date)

Returns the offset of this time zone from UTC at the specified date. If Daylight Saving Time is in effect at the specified date, the offset value is adjusted with the amount of daylight saving.

This method returns a historically correct offset value if an underlying TimeZone implementation subclass supports historical Daylight Saving Time schedule and GMT offset changes.

Parameters
date the date represented in milliseconds since January 1, 1970 00:00:00 GMT
Returns
  • the amount of time in milliseconds to add to UTC to get local time.
See Also

public abstract int getRawOffset ()

Returns the amount of time in milliseconds to add to UTC to get standard time in this time zone. Because this value is not affected by daylight saving time, it is called raw offset.

If an underlying TimeZone implementation subclass supports historical GMT offset changes, the method returns the raw offset value of the current date. In Honolulu, for example, its raw offset changed from GMT-10:30 to GMT-10:00 in 1947, and this method always returns -36000000 milliseconds (i.e., -10 hours).

Returns
  • the amount of raw offset time in milliseconds to add to UTC.
See Also

public static synchronized TimeZone getTimeZone (String ID)

Gets the TimeZone for the given ID.

Parameters
ID the ID for a TimeZone, either an abbreviation such as "PST", a full name such as "America/Los_Angeles", or a custom ID such as "GMT-8:00". Note that the support of abbreviations is for JDK 1.1.x compatibility only and full names should be used.
Returns
  • the specified TimeZone, or the GMT zone if the given ID cannot be understood.

public boolean hasSameRules (TimeZone other)

Returns true if this zone has the same rule and offset as another zone. That is, if this zone differs only in ID, if at all. Returns false if the other zone is null.

Parameters
other the TimeZone object to be compared with
Returns
  • true if the other zone is not null and is the same as this one, with the possible exception of the ID

public abstract boolean inDaylightTime (Date date)

Queries if the given date is in daylight savings time in this time zone.

Parameters
date the given Date.
Returns
  • true if the given date is in daylight savings time, false, otherwise.

public static void setDefault (TimeZone zone)

Sets the TimeZone that is returned by the getDefault method. If zone is null, reset the default to the value it had originally when the VM first started.

Parameters
zone the new default time zone
See Also

public void setID (String ID)

Sets the time zone ID. This does not change any other data in the time zone object.

Parameters
ID the new time zone ID.

public abstract void setRawOffset (int offsetMillis)

Sets the base time zone offset to GMT. This is the offset to add to UTC to get local time.

If an underlying TimeZone implementation subclass supports historical GMT offset changes, the specified GMT offset is set as the latest GMT offset and the difference from the known latest GMT offset value is used to adjust all historical GMT offset values.

Parameters
offsetMillis the given base time zone offset to GMT.

public abstract boolean useDaylightTime ()

Queries if this time zone uses daylight savings time.

If an underlying TimeZone implementation subclass supports historical Daylight Saving Time schedule changes, the method refers to the latest Daylight Saving Time schedule information.

Returns
  • true if this time zone uses daylight savings time, false, otherwise.