Convert UTC datetime string to local datetime

Question

I\'ve never had to convert time to and from UTC. Recently had a request to have my app be timezone aware, and I\'ve been running myself in circles. Lots of information on co

Answer 1

See the datetime documentation on tzinfo objects. You have to implement the timezones you want to support yourself. The are examples at the bottom of the documentation.

Here's a simple example:

from datetime import datetime,tzinfo,timedelta

class Zone(tzinfo):
    def __init__(self,offset,isdst,name):
        self.offset = offset
        self.isdst = isdst
        self.name = name
    def utcoffset(self, dt):
        return timedelta(hours=self.offset) + self.dst(dt)
    def dst(self, dt):
            return timedelta(hours=1) if self.isdst else timedelta(0)
    def tzname(self,dt):
         return self.name

GMT = Zone(0,False,'GMT')
EST = Zone(-5,False,'EST')

print datetime.utcnow().strftime('%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S %Z')
print datetime.now(GMT).strftime('%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S %Z')
print datetime.now(EST).strftime('%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S %Z')

t = datetime.strptime('2011-01-21 02:37:21','%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
t = t.replace(tzinfo=GMT)
print t
print t.astimezone(EST)

Output

01/22/2011 21:52:09 
01/22/2011 21:52:09 GMT
01/22/2011 16:52:09 EST
2011-01-21 02:37:21+00:00
2011-01-20 21:37:21-05:00a