Time Zone Databases

Time Zone Databases are specialized databases that store and manage time zone information, including rules for daylight saving time (DST), historical changes, and geographic boundaries. They provide standardized data for converting between Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and local times across the world, ensuring accuracy in applications that handle global time-sensitive operations. Examples include the IANA Time Zone Database (often called tz database or zoneinfo) and Microsoft's Windows Time Zone Database.

Also known as: tz database, zoneinfo, IANA time zone database, Olson database, timezone DB

Why learn Time Zone Databases?

Developers should learn and use Time Zone Databases when building applications that involve scheduling, logging, or displaying times for users in multiple geographic regions, such as international e-commerce platforms, travel booking systems, or distributed software with global users. They are essential for avoiding errors in time calculations due to DST transitions, political changes in time zones, or historical adjustments, ensuring compliance with legal and operational requirements.

Learning Resources

• docs: IANA Time Zone Database Documentation
• tutorial: Time Zone Database Tutorial on MDN Web Docs
• docs: Working with Time Zones in Python (pytz and zoneinfo)
• video: Time Zone Best Practices for Software Developers
• docs: tz database on Wikipedia