Creating a DateTime in a specific Time Zone in c

Question

I m trying to create a unit test to test the case for when the timezone changes on a machine because it has been incorrectly set and then corrected   In the test I need to be able to create DateTime objects in a none local time zone to ensure that people running the test can do so successfully irrespective of where they are located   From what I can see from the DateTime constructor I can set the TimeZone to be either the local timezone  the UTC timezone or not specified   How do I create a DateTime with a specific timezone like PST

User · Accepted Answer

Jon s answer talks about TimeZone  but I d suggest using TimeZoneInfo instead   Personally I like keeping things in UTC where possible  at least for the past  storing UTC for the future has potential issues   so I d suggest a structure like this   public struct DateTimeWithZone       private readonly DateTime utcDateTime      private readonly TimeZoneInfo timeZone       public DateTimeWithZone DateTime dateTime  TimeZoneInfo timeZone                var dateTimeUnspec   DateTime SpecifyKind dateTime  DateTimeKind Unspecified           utcDateTime   TimeZoneInfo ConvertTimeToUtc dateTimeUnspec  timeZone            this timeZone   timeZone             public DateTime UniversalTime   get   return utcDateTime           public TimeZoneInfo TimeZone   get   return timeZone           public DateTime LocalTime                get                         return TimeZoneInfo ConvertTime utcDateTime  timeZone                                You may wish to change the  TimeZone  names to  TimeZoneInfo  to make things clearer - I prefer the briefer names myself

User · Answer

The DateTimeOffset structure was created for exactly this type of use   See  http   msdn microsoft com en-us library system datetimeoffset aspx  Here s an example of creating a DateTimeOffset object with a specific time zone   DateTimeOffset do1   new DateTimeOffset 2008  8  22  1  0  0  new TimeSpan -5  0  0

User · Answer

You ll have to create a custom object for that  Your custom object will contain two values    a DateTime value a TimeZone object   Not sure if there already is a CLR-provided data type that has that  but at least the TimeZone component is already available

User · Answer

Using TimeZones class makes it easy to create timezone specific date   TimeZoneInfo ConvertTime DateTime Now  TimeZoneInfo FindSystemTimeZoneById TimeZones Paris Id

User · Answer

The DateTimeOffset structure was created for exactly this type of use   See  http   msdn microsoft com en-us library system datetimeoffset aspx  Here s an example of creating a DateTimeOffset object with a specific time zone   DateTimeOffset do1   new DateTimeOffset 2008  8  22  1  0  0  new TimeSpan -5  0  0

User · Answer

I like Jon Skeet s answer  but would like to add one thing   I m not sure if Jon was expecting the ctor to always be passed in the Local timezone   But I want to use it for cases where it s something other then local     I m reading values from a database  and I know what timezone that database is in   So in the ctor  I ll pass in the timezone of the database   But then I would like the value in local time   Jon s LocalTime does not return the original date converted into a local timezone date   It returns the date converted into the original timezone  whatever you had passed into the ctor    I think these property names clear it up     public DateTime TimeInOriginalZone   get   return TimeZoneInfo ConvertTime utcDateTime  timeZone       public DateTime TimeInLocalZone      get   return TimeZoneInfo ConvertTime utcDateTime  TimeZoneInfo Local       public DateTime TimeInSpecificZone TimeZoneInfo tz        return TimeZoneInfo ConvertTime utcDateTime  tz

User · Answer

You ll have to create a custom object for that  Your custom object will contain two values    a DateTime value a TimeZone object   Not sure if there already is a CLR-provided data type that has that  but at least the TimeZone component is already available

User · Answer

You ll have to create a custom object for that  Your custom object will contain two values    a DateTime value a TimeZone object   Not sure if there already is a CLR-provided data type that has that  but at least the TimeZone component is already available

User · Answer

Using TimeZones class makes it easy to create timezone specific date   TimeZoneInfo ConvertTime DateTime Now  TimeZoneInfo FindSystemTimeZoneById TimeZones Paris Id

User · Answer

I altered Jon Skeet answer a bit for the web with extension method  It also works on azure like a charm   public static class DateTimeWithZone    private static readonly TimeZoneInfo timeZone   static DateTimeWithZone       I added web config  lt add key  CurrentTimeZoneId  value  Central Europe Standard Time    gt    You can add value directly into function      timeZone   TimeZoneInfo FindSystemTimeZoneById ConfigurationManager AppSettings  CurrentTimeZoneId         public static DateTime LocalTime this DateTime t         return TimeZoneInfo ConvertTime t  timeZone

User · Answer

The other answers here are useful but they don t cover how to access Pacific specifically - here you go   public static DateTime GmtToPacific DateTime dateTime        return TimeZoneInfo ConvertTimeFromUtc dateTime          TimeZoneInfo FindSystemTimeZoneById  Pacific Standard Time         Oddly enough  although  Pacific Standard Time  normally means something different from  Pacific Daylight Time   in this case it refers to Pacific time in general  In fact  if you use FindSystemTimeZoneById to fetch it  one of the properties available is a bool telling you whether that timezone is currently in daylight savings or not   You can see more generalized examples of this in a library I ended up throwing together to deal with DateTimes I need in different TimeZones based on where the user is asking from  etc   https   github com b9chris TimeZoneInfoLib Net  This won t work outside of Windows  for example Mono on Linux  since the list of times comes from the Windows Registry  HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows NT CurrentVersion Time Zones   Underneath that you ll find keys  folder icons in Registry Editor   the names of those keys are what you pass to FindSystemTimeZoneById  On Linux you have to use a separate Linux-standard set of timezone definitions  which I ve not adequately explored

User · Answer

You ll have to create a custom object for that  Your custom object will contain two values    a DateTime value a TimeZone object   Not sure if there already is a CLR-provided data type that has that  but at least the TimeZone component is already available

User · Answer

The other answers here are useful but they don t cover how to access Pacific specifically - here you go   public static DateTime GmtToPacific DateTime dateTime        return TimeZoneInfo ConvertTimeFromUtc dateTime          TimeZoneInfo FindSystemTimeZoneById  Pacific Standard Time         Oddly enough  although  Pacific Standard Time  normally means something different from  Pacific Daylight Time   in this case it refers to Pacific time in general  In fact  if you use FindSystemTimeZoneById to fetch it  one of the properties available is a bool telling you whether that timezone is currently in daylight savings or not   You can see more generalized examples of this in a library I ended up throwing together to deal with DateTimes I need in different TimeZones based on where the user is asking from  etc   https   github com b9chris TimeZoneInfoLib Net  This won t work outside of Windows  for example Mono on Linux  since the list of times comes from the Windows Registry  HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows NT CurrentVersion Time Zones   Underneath that you ll find keys  folder icons in Registry Editor   the names of those keys are what you pass to FindSystemTimeZoneById  On Linux you have to use a separate Linux-standard set of timezone definitions  which I ve not adequately explored

User · Answer

I altered Jon Skeet answer a bit for the web with extension method  It also works on azure like a charm   public static class DateTimeWithZone    private static readonly TimeZoneInfo timeZone   static DateTimeWithZone       I added web config  lt add key  CurrentTimeZoneId  value  Central Europe Standard Time    gt    You can add value directly into function      timeZone   TimeZoneInfo FindSystemTimeZoneById ConfigurationManager AppSettings  CurrentTimeZoneId         public static DateTime LocalTime this DateTime t         return TimeZoneInfo ConvertTime t  timeZone

User · Answer

I like Jon Skeet s answer  but would like to add one thing   I m not sure if Jon was expecting the ctor to always be passed in the Local timezone   But I want to use it for cases where it s something other then local     I m reading values from a database  and I know what timezone that database is in   So in the ctor  I ll pass in the timezone of the database   But then I would like the value in local time   Jon s LocalTime does not return the original date converted into a local timezone date   It returns the date converted into the original timezone  whatever you had passed into the ctor    I think these property names clear it up     public DateTime TimeInOriginalZone   get   return TimeZoneInfo ConvertTime utcDateTime  timeZone       public DateTime TimeInLocalZone      get   return TimeZoneInfo ConvertTime utcDateTime  TimeZoneInfo Local       public DateTime TimeInSpecificZone TimeZoneInfo tz        return TimeZoneInfo ConvertTime utcDateTime  tz

[c#] Creating a DateTime in a specific Time Zone in c#

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