Offsets and time zones
Time Zone Offset accepts either a fixed difference from UTC or an IANA time zone ID.
A fixed offset
Section titled “A fixed offset”The difference from UTC does not change for daylight saving.
| Example | Meaning |
|---|---|
-07:00 | Seven hours behind UTC |
+05:30 | Five hours and thirty minutes ahead of UTC |
-7 | Seven hours behind UTC |
-7.5 | Seven hours and thirty minutes behind UTC |
UTC-08:00 | Eight hours behind UTC. GMT works the same way |
Z, UTC, GMT | UTC |
Supported offsets run from -14:00 through +14:00. Minutes and seconds must be 00 through 59.
A named time zone
Section titled “A named time zone”The ID uses that zone’s rules for the Date/Time you pass in, including daylight saving.
| Example | Use |
|---|---|
America/Los_Angeles | Pacific Time |
America/New_York | Eastern Time |
Europe/London | United Kingdom time |
Asia/Kolkata | India Standard Time, UTC+5:30 |
On 2026-09-27 17:00 UTC, America/Los_Angeles and the fixed offset -07:00 both format as 2026-09-27 10:00:00 with the default pattern. In January, that same clock time in America/Los_Angeles is UTC−8, while -07:00 stays seven hours behind UTC.
Use an IANA ID. A short name such as Pacific is not recognized, and the action faults.