class Time::Location

Overview

Location maps time instants to the zone in use at that time. It typically represents the collection of time offsets observed in a certain geographical area.

It contains a list of zone offsets and rules for transitioning between them.

If a location has only one offset (such as UTC) it is considered fixed.

A Location instance is usually retrieved by name using Time::Location.load. It loads the zone offsets and transitioning rules from the time zone database provided by the operating system.

location = Time::Location.load("Europe/Berlin")
location # => #<Time::Location Europe/Berlin>
time = Time.local(2016, 2, 15, 21, 1, 10, location: location)
time # => 2016-02-15 21:01:10 +01:00 Europe/Berlin

A custom time zone database can be configured through the environment variable ZONEINFO. See .load for details.

Fixed Offset

A fixed offset location is created using Time::Location.fixed:

location = Time::Location.fixed(3600)
location       # => #<Time::Location +01:00>
location.zones # => [#<Time::Location::Zone +01:00 (0s) STD>]

Local Time Zone

The local time zone can be accessed as Time::Location.local.

It is initially configured according to system environment settings, but its value can be changed:

location = Time::Location.local
Time::Location.local = Time::Location.load("America/New_York")

Defined in:

time/location.cr
time/location/loader.cr

Constant Summary

UTC = new("UTC", [Zone::UTC])

Describes the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

The only time zone offset in this location is Zone::UTC.

Constructors

Class Method Summary

Instance Method Summary

Instance methods inherited from class Reference

==(other : self)
==(other : JSON::Any)
==(other : YAML::Any)
==(other) ==, dup dup, hash(hasher) hash, initialize initialize, inspect(io : IO) : Nil inspect, object_id : UInt64 object_id, pretty_print(pp) : Nil pretty_print, same?(other : Reference) : Bool
same?(other : Nil) same?, to_s(io : IO) : Nil to_s

Constructor methods inherited from class Reference

new new

Instance methods inherited from class Object

! : Bool !, !=(other) !=, !~(other) !~, ==(other) ==, ===(other : JSON::Any)
===(other : YAML::Any)
===(other) ===, =~(other) =~, as(type : Class) as, as?(type : Class) as?, class class, dup dup, hash(hasher)
hash hash, in?(collection : Object) : Bool
in?(*values : Object) : Bool in?, inspect(io : IO) : Nil
inspect : String inspect, is_a?(type : Class) : Bool is_a?, itself itself, nil? : Bool nil?, not_nil!(message)
not_nil! not_nil!, pretty_inspect(width = 79, newline = "\n", indent = 0) : String pretty_inspect, pretty_print(pp : PrettyPrint) : Nil pretty_print, responds_to?(name : Symbol) : Bool responds_to?, tap(&) tap, to_json(io : IO) : Nil
to_json : String to_json, to_pretty_json(indent : String = " ") : String
to_pretty_json(io : IO, indent : String = " ") : Nil to_pretty_json, to_s(io : IO) : Nil
to_s : String to_s, to_yaml(io : IO) : Nil
to_yaml : String to_yaml, try(&) try, unsafe_as(type : T.class) forall T unsafe_as

Class methods inherited from class Object

from_json(string_or_io, root : String)
from_json(string_or_io) from_json, from_yaml(string_or_io : String | IO) from_yaml

Constructor Detail

def self.fixed(name : String, offset : Int32) : Location #

Creates a Location instance named name with fixed offset in seconds from UTC.


[View source]
def self.fixed(offset : Int32) : self #

Creates a Location instance with fixed offset in seconds from UTC.

The formatted offset is used as name.


[View source]
def self.load(name : String) : Location #

Loads the Location with the given name.

location = Time::Location.load("Europe/Berlin")

name is understood to be a location name in the IANA Time Zone database, such as "America/New_York". As special cases, "UTC" and empty string ("") return Location::UTC, and "Local" returns Location.local.

The implementation uses a list of system-specific paths to look for a time zone database. The first time zone database entry matching the given name that is successfully loaded and parsed is returned. Typical paths on Unix-based operating systems are /usr/share/zoneinfo/, /usr/share/lib/zoneinfo/, or /usr/lib/locale/TZ/.

A time zone database may not be present on all systems, especially non-Unix systems. In this case, you may need to distribute a copy of the database with an application that depends on time zone data being available.

A custom lookup path can be set as environment variable ZONEINFO. The path can point to the root of a directory structure or an uncompressed ZIP file, each representing the time zone database using files and folders of the expected names.

Example:

# This tries to load the file `/usr/share/zoneinfo/Custom/Location`
ENV["ZONEINFO"] = "/usr/share/zoneinfo/"
Time::Location.load("Custom/Location")

# This tries to load the file `Custom/Location` in the uncompressed ZIP
# file at `/path/to/zoneinfo.zip`
ENV["ZONEINFO"] = "/path/to/zoneinfo.zip"
Time::Location.load("Custom/Location")

If the location name cannot be found, InvalidLocationNameError is raised. If the loader encounters a format error in the time zone database, InvalidTZDataError is raised.

Files are cached based on the modification time, so subsequent request for the same location name will most likely return the same instance of Location, unless the time zone database has been updated in between.


[View source]
def self.load_local : Location #

Loads the local time zone according to the current application environment.

The environment variable ENV["TZ"] is consulted for finding the time zone to use.

  • "UTC" and empty string ("") return Location::UTC
  • Any other value (such as "Europe/Berlin") is tried to be resolved using Location.load.
  • If ENV["TZ"] is not set, the system's local time zone data will be used (/etc/localtime on unix-based systems).
  • If no time zone data could be found (i.e. the previous methods failed), Location::UTC is returned.

[View source]
def self.local : Location #

Returns the Location representing the application's local time zone.

Time uses this property as default value for most method arguments expecting a Location.

The initial value depends on the current application environment, see .load_local for details.

The value can be changed to overwrite the system default:

Time.local.location # => #<Time::Location America/New_York>
Time::Location.local = Time::Location.load("Europe/Berlin")
Time.local.location # => #<Time::Location Europe/Berlin>

[View source]

Class Method Detail

def self.local=(local : Location) #

Returns the Location representing the application's local time zone.

Time uses this property as default value for most method arguments expecting a Location.

The initial value depends on the current application environment, see .load_local for details.

The value can be changed to overwrite the system default:

Time.local.location # => #<Time::Location America/New_York>
Time::Location.local = Time::Location.load("Europe/Berlin")
Time.local.location # => #<Time::Location Europe/Berlin>

[View source]

Instance Method Detail

def ==(other : self) #

Returns true if other is equal to self.

Two Location instances are considered equal if they have the same name, offset zones and transition rules.


def fixed? : Bool #

Returns true if this location has a fixed offset.


[View source]
def hash(hasher) #

Returns true if other is equal to self.

Two Location instances are considered equal if they have the same name, offset zones and transition rules.


def inspect(io : IO) : Nil #
Description copied from class Reference

Appends a String representation of this object which includes its class name, its object address and the values of all instance variables.

class Person
  def initialize(@name : String, @age : Int32)
  end
end

Person.new("John", 32).inspect # => #<Person:0x10fd31f20 @name="John", @age=32>

[View source]
def local? : Bool #

Returns true if this location equals to Time::Location.local.


[View source]
def lookup(time : Time) : Zone #

Returns the time zone offset observed at time.


[View source]
def lookup(unix_seconds : Int) : Zone #

Returns the time zone offset observed at unix_seconds.

unix_seconds expresses the number of seconds since UNIX epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC).


[View source]
def name : String #

Returns the name of this location.

It usually consists of a continent and city name separated by a slash, for example Europe/Berlin.


[View source]
def to_s(io : IO) : Nil #

Prints #name to io.


[View source]
def utc? : Bool #

Returns true if this location equals to UTC.


[View source]
def zones : Array(Zone) #

Returns the array of time zone offsets (Zone) used in this time zone.


[View source]