Any API that returns the timezone in GMT(+/-) format?

[ram shyam]

Hi all,

I went through the Timezone package but could not find the exact API that returns the timezone in GMT, rather it returns as "Europe/Berlin".

As far as I had read through the API doc, I found that the Timezone APIs like getTimezone(), getDefault() methods return only the ID in this format "Europe/Berlin" and not in GMT format.

I cannot use either the getTimeZone("....") or the custom ID creation method, as I want API to return the default timezone id in GMT format and not create any timezone parameters.

Please let me know if any such API exists or is there any other way of obtaining the above.

Thanks in advance!!!

[Jesper de Jong]

What do you mean with "GMT format"? Do you mean a string like "+0200", which represents the offset in hours and minutes from GMT/UTC?

Class TimeZone has methods like getOffset() and getRawOffset() which return the offset of the timezone from UTC as an integer (a number of milliseconds). This number can easily be formatted to a string like "+0200". For example:

TimeZone tz = TimeZone.getDefault();
int offset = tz.getRawOffset();
 
String text = String.format("%s%02d%02d", offset >= 0 ? "+" : "-", offset / 3600000, (offset / 60000) % 60);
 
System.out.println(text);

[ram shyam]

hi,

Many thanks for your reply.
Yes, this is what I want. But could you please explain the parameter "%s%02d%02d" used in format method?

Thanks in advance!!

[Joanne Neal]

Originally posted by ram shyam:
hi,

Many thanks for your reply.
Yes, this is what I want. But could you please explain the parameter "%s%02d%02d" used in format method?

Thanks in advance!!

Have a look at the format() method in String javadoc. Note that this method was added in JRE1.5, so if you're using an earlier version you can't use this method.

[ram shyam]

Many thanks for your reply!!!