CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netdatetime
user626528
user626528

Reputation: 14417

Getting original time zone of DateTime value when parsing

I have a set of DateTime text representations in ISO 8601 format, some of them have time zone specified. By default, DateTime.Parse() adjusts them to the local time zone (or to UTC with a special option), but in both cases the original time zone is missing. However, I need to detect which of DateTime strings were specified with the time zone and get its value for further processing.

Any ideas on how to do that?

UPD sample inputs:

2015-06-26T22:57:09Z
2015-06-26T22:57:09
2015-06-26T22:57:09+01:00

Upvotes: 3

Views: 5387

Answers (1)

Soner Gönül
Soner Gönül

Reputation: 98848

Let me try to clear a few things..

First of all both DateTime and DateTimeOffset are timezone awareness. A DateTime might know it's UTC or Local, but still, it can't know what local really means. A DateTimeOffset is somewhat better, it keeps a UTC time with an UTC offset. But still, these are not enough information to determine a timezone because different timezones can have same offsets.

DateTime.Parse generally returns a DateTime with Kind as Unspecified. It returns;

  • Local when your string has time zone information.
  • UTC when your string has time zone information and using AdjustToUniversal style or your string has Z or GMT designator and using RoundtripKind style.

That's why DateTime.Parse("2015-06-26T22:57:09") returns Unspecified but both DateTime.Parse("2015-06-26T22:57:09Z") and DateTime.Parse("2015-06-26T22:57:09+01:00") returns Local as a Kind. That's why no matter which you used, you will not get a real time zone information.

I would suggest you to used NodaTime instead. It has a ZonedDateTime structure as defined;

A LocalDateTime in a specific time zone and with a particular offset to distinguish between otherwise-ambiguous instants.

This structure is would be better for your case.

Upvotes: 3

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