Timezone conversion in a Google spreadsheet

Question

I know this looks simple.

In a Google spreadsheet, I have a column where I enter time in one timezone (GMT) And another column should automatically get time in anoth

Answer 1

This tutorial was amazingly helpful: https://davidkeen.com/blog/2017/01/time-zone-conversion-in-google-sheets/

Google Sheets does not have a built in way of converting time zone data but by using the power of Moment.js and Google’s script editor we can add time zone functionality to any sheet.

These are the files I copied into my script project:

• https://momentjs.com/downloads/moment-with-locales.js saved as moment.js
• https://momentjs.com/downloads/moment-timezone-with-data.js saved as moment-timezone.js

Make sure you add the moment.js script first and have it above the moment-timezone.js script because moment-timezone.js depends on it.

Then in your other script project, your Code.gs file can look like this:

var DT_FORMAT = 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss';

/**
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34946815/timezone-conversion-in-a-google-spreadsheet/40324587
*/
function toUtc(dateTime, timeZone) {  
  var from = m.moment.tz(dateTime, DT_FORMAT, timeZone);//https://momentjs.com/timezone/docs/#/using-timezones/parsing-in-zone/
  return from.utc().format(DT_FORMAT);
}

/**
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34946815/timezone-conversion-in-a-google-spreadsheet/40324587
*/
function fromUtc(dateTime, timeZone) {
  var from = m.moment.utc(dateTime, DT_FORMAT);//https://momentjs.com/timezone/docs/#/using-timezones/parsing-in-zone/
  return from.tz(timeZone).format(DT_FORMAT);
}

Answer 2

I had the same problem (convert Manila Time to Sydney Time and automatically adjust for daylight saving time) when I found this page.

I didn't want to have a custom function but I found that, in Sydney, AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) starts on the first Sunday of April and AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Time) starts on the first Sunday of October.

So I thought, if I could find a formula that detects whether a date falls between the first Sunday of April and first Sunday of October (Standard Time) then I can automatically add 1 hour to the usual 2 hours to Manila time during Daylight Saving Time (dates falling outside the two dates) to have Sydney Time.

These two Excel solutions worked fine in Google Sheets:

• How You Can Determine the First Sunday in a Month in Excel
• How to determine if a date falls between two dates or on weekend in Excel

First Sunday of April this year (A1):

=CONCATENATE("4/1/",Year(today()))+CHOOSE(WEEKDAY(CONCATENATE("4/1/",Year(today())),1),7,6,5,4,3,2,1)

First Sunday of October this year (A2):

=CONCATENATE("10/1/",year(today()))+CHOOSE(WEEKDAY(CONCATENATE("10/1/",year(today())),1),7,6,5,4,3,2,1)

DST detector (A3) — if a date falls outside these two dates, it's DST in Sydney:

=IF(AND(today()>A1,today()<A2),"AEST","AEDT")

Time in Sydney (A4):

=NOW()+TIME(IF(A3="AEDT",3,2),0,0)

NOW() can be changed to any time format for tabulation:

Answer 3

That can also be done without macros. Just using functions and data manipulation will suffice. Explaning the whole process here would be a bit cumbersome. Just do your research on how the various time functions work and use your creativity.

Hint: Use =NOW() if you want both current date and time. You'll actually need that if you need to find out the precise diff in time between to different dates.

Use =NOW()-INT(NOW()) when you only want the time (with date truncated if both times fall on the same date). Then format the corresponding cell or cells for time (i.e. 4:30 PM), not for date-time (3/25/2019 17:00:00). The latter is the format you'd use when you want to show both date and time... like when you use NOW().

Also search online for the Daylight Saving Time offset for the various standard time zones (PT, MT, CT, ET, AT) with respect to the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). For example, in 2019 the offset for Pacific Time is UTC-7 when DST is observed starting on March 10 at 2 AM (Pacific) until November 3 at 2 AM. That means that the difference in time from UTC to Pacific is 7 hours. During the rest of the year is 8 hours (UTC-8). During DST observance starting sometime in March (the 10th this yr) it goes from PST to PDT by moving clocks forward 1 hr, or what we know as UTC-7 (that's summer time). After DST observance it goes from PDT to PST by moving clocks back 1 hr again, or what we know as UTC-8 (or winter time). Remember that the clock is advanced one hour in March to make better use of time. That's what we call DST, or Daylight Saving Time. So after March 8 at 2 AM (this year in 2019) we are in UTC-7. In November, we do the opposite. In Nov 3 at 2 AM the clock is taken back one hour as the winter kicks in. At that point we are back in Standard Time. Seems a bit confusing but it's really not.

So, basically, for folks in PT they go from PST to PDT in March and from PDT to PST in November. The exact same process goes on with Mountain Time, Central Time and Eastern Time. But they have different UTC time offsets. MT is either UTC-6 or UTC-7. CT is either UTC-5 or UTC-6. And ET is either UTC-4 or UTC-5. All depending on whether we are in summer time when Daylight Saving is observed to make better use of daylight and working hours, or in winter time (AKA, Standard Time).

Study these thoroughly and understand how they work, and play around with the various time functions in Excel or Google Sheets like the TIME(#,#,#) and NOW() functions and such, and believe me, soon you'll be able to do about anything like a pro with plain functions without having to use VBA Google Apps Script. You can also use the TEXT() function, though, with tricks like =TEXT(L4,"DDD, MMM D")&" | "&TEXT(L4,"h:mm AM/PM"), where L4 contains you date-timestamp, to display time and date formats. The VALUE() function also comes in handy every now and then. You can even design a numerical countdown timer without the use of macros. You'd need to create a circular reference and set iterations to 1, and time display to say every 1 min, in your spreadsheet settings for that.

The official timeanddate dot com website is a good source of info for all to know about time zones and how daylight time is handled. They have all UTC offsets there too.

Answer 4

Short answer

There is no built-in function but you could build a custom function.

Example

/**
 * Converts a datetime string to a datetime string in a targe timezone.
 *
 *@param {"October 29, 2016 1:00 PM CDT"} datetimeString Date, time and timezone.
 *@param {"Timezone"} timeZone Target timezone
 *@param {"YYYY-MM-dd hh:mm a z"} Datetime format
 *@customfunction
 */
function formatDate(datetimeString,timeZone,format) {
  var moment = new Date(datetimeString);
  if(moment instanceof Date && !isNaN(moment)){
    return Utilities.formatDate(moment, timeZone, format)
  } else {
    throw 'datetimeString can not be parsed as a JavaScript Date object'
  }
}

NOTE:

new Date(string) / Date.parse(string) implementation in Google Apps Script doesn't support some timezones abbreviations.

From https://tc39.es/ecma262/#sec-date-time-string-format

There exists no international standard that specifies abbreviations for civil time zones like CET, EST, etc. and sometimes the same abbreviation is even used for two very different time zones.

Related

• Get UTC offset from timezone abbreviations

---

Explanation

In order to consider daylight saving time zones the input argument for of the value to be converted should include the date, no only the time of the day. You could set a default date and time zone to build the datetimeString by concatenating it before calling the formula.

=formatDate("October 29, 2016 "&A2&" GMT","PDT","hh:mm a")

For the target timezone besides the three letter abbreviation we could use TZ database names like America/Los_Angeles, example:

=formatDate("October 29, 2016 "&A2&" GMT","America/Los_Angeles","HH:mm")

If timezone abbreviation and TZ name fails for the datetimeString use time offsets (i.e. UTC-4).

See also

• Calculating year, month, days between dates in google apps script

References

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Date

Answer 5

Create your own Timezone Converter in Google Sheets:

Step 1: Create your table for the timezone converter.

Step 2: Enter the times for your time zones in a column. Note: Ensure that you select date/time format(Select Cell(s) -> Format -> Number -> Time/Date)

Step 3: Write a formula to convert timezone using the following functions Google Sheet Functions

=HOUR(A8)+(B3*C3) converts the hours.
=MINUTE(A8)+(B3*C3) converts the minutes.

Step 4: Convert back to time format using TIME(h,m,s) function

=TIME(HOUR(A8)+(B3*C3), MINUTE(A8)+(B3*C3), SECOND(A8))

This is a simple way to convert timezones. However, if you want to implement an accurate timezone converter that takes care of the previous day, next day, and beyond 24 hours, beyond 60 minutes, please use MOD operations and handle all the cases. Visit(or Use) this google sheet for reference: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tfz5AtU3pddb46PG93HFlzpE8zqy421N0MKxHBCSqpo/edit?usp=sharing