Talks - Paul Ganssle: Working with Time Zones: Everything You Wish You Didn't Need to Know

Python

Learn everything you wish you didn't need to know about time zones, including non-standard offsets, daylight saving time rules, and navigating complexities with Python libraries and datetime arithmetic.

Key takeaways

Time zones are not divided into 24 equal-sized zones, each one hour apart from UTC; instead, some time zones have half-hour or quarter-hour offsets.
Not all time zones use daylight saving time (DST); some may use different rules for adjusting local time.
UTC is not a natural abstraction for most of the world, as many regions use non-standard time zones or have complex DST rules.
The tz library in Python represents a set of rules for mapping wall time to a series of offsets, but this can be confusing and may not accurately reflect all possible time zone scenarios.
datetime arithmetic can be tricky, especially when dealing with DST transitions or non-standard time zones.
The ZoneInfo library provides a more accurate and user-friendly way to work with time zones in Python.
There are several different ways to represent time zones in Python, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.
Using a third-party library like PyTZ can help mitigate some of the complexities of working with time zones in Python.
Some time zones have complex DST rules or non-standard time offsets, which can require extra care when working with dates and times.
The fold attribute in the datetime library can help resolve ambiguous time zone transitions.
The ZoneInfo library is designed to be more compatible with other libraries and is a good choice for working with time zones in Python.

Talks - Paul Ganssle: Working with Time Zones: Everything You Wish You Didn't Need to Know

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