TimeZoneNames

A simple portable class library that provides localized time zone names using CLDR and TZDB sources.

Why? Because .NET's usual time zone display names are not localized properly, and are often wrong or unsuitable for various scenarios. Read this blog post for more details.

Nuget Installation

PM> Install-Package TimeZoneNames

Notes

Version 2.0 introduces some breaking changes, fills in some gaps, and adds a whole lot more functionality. Please upgrade with care. Thanks.

Demo

One possible scenario for this library is to build a localized time zone selection control. Click here for a live demonstration.

Usage

First, import the TimeZoneNames namespace:

using TimeZoneNames;

All functionality is provided as static methods from the TZNames class.

Methods for localizing a single time zone

GetNamesForTimeZone

Look up the localized names for a specific time zone:

var names = TZNames.GetNamesForTimeZone("America/Los_Angeles", "en-US");

names.Generic == "Pacific Time"
names.Standard == "Pacific Standard Time"
names.Daylight == "Pacific Daylight Time"

var names = TZNames.GetNamesForTimeZone("America/Los_Angeles", "fr-CA");

names.Generic == "heure du Pacifique"
names.Standard == "heure normale du Pacifique"
names.Daylight == "heure avancée du Pacifique"

You can pass a Windows time zone id instead, if you like:

var names = TZNames.GetNamesForTimeZone("Romance Standard Time", "en-GB");

names.Generic == "Central European Time"
names.Standard == "Central European Standard Time"
names.Daylight == "Central European Summer Time"

GetAbbreviationsForTimeZone

Look up the localized abbreviations for a specific time zone:

var abbreviations = TZNames.GetAbbreviationsForTimeZone("America/Los_Angeles", "en-US");

abbreviations.Generic == "PT"
abbreviations.Standard == "PST"
abbreviations.Daylight == "PDT"

You can pass a Windows time zone id instead, if you like:

var abbreviations = TZNames.GetAbbreviationsForTimeZone("Romance Standard Time", "en-GB");

names.Generic == "CET"
abbreviations.Standard == "CET"
abbreviations.Daylight == "CEST"

Note: Time zone abbreviations are sometimes inconsistent, and are not necessarily localized correctly for every time zone. In most cases, you should use abbreviations for end-user display output only. Do not attempt to use abbreviations when parsing input.

Methods for listing time zones

GetTimeZonesForCountry

Get a list of time zone names for a specific country, suitable for user time zone selection.

Returns a dictionary whose key is the IANA time zone identifier, and whose value is the localized generic time zone name. When more than one entry in the result set shares the same name, then a localized city name is appended in parenthesis to disambiguate. (This is usually due to historical differences.)

var zones = TZNames.GetTimeZonesForCountry("BR", "pt-BR");

Output

Key	Value
America/Eirunepe	Horário do Acre (Eirunepé)
America/Rio_Branco	Horário do Acre (Rio Branco)
America/Porto_Velho	Horário do Amazonas (Porto Velho)
America/Boa_Vista	Horário do Amazonas (Boa Vista)
America/Manaus	Horário do Amazonas (Manaus)
America/Campo_Grande	Horário do Amazonas (Campo Grande)
America/Cuiaba	Horário do Amazonas (Cuiabá)
America/Belem	Horário de Brasília (Belém)
America/Fortaleza	Horário de Brasília (Fortaleza)
America/Recife	Horário de Brasília (Recife)
America/Araguaina	Horário de Brasília (Araguaína)
America/Maceio	Horário de Brasília (Maceió)
America/Bahia	Horário de Brasília (Bahia)
America/Santarem	Horário de Brasília (Santarém)
America/Sao_Paulo	Horário de Brasília (São Paulo)
America/Noronha	Horário de Fernando de Noronha

Many scenarios don't require all time zones, so you can specify a threshold date as an optional parameter:

var zones = TZNames.GetTimeZonesForCountry("BR", "pt-BR", new DateTime(2010, 1, 1));

Output

Key	Value
America/Rio_Branco	Horário do Acre
America/Manaus	Horário do Amazonas (Manaus)
America/Cuiaba	Horário do Amazonas (Cuiabá)
America/Fortaleza	Horário de Brasília (Fortaleza)
America/Araguaina	Horário de Brasília (Araguaína)
America/Bahia	Horário de Brasília (Bahia)
America/Sao_Paulo	Horário de Brasília (São Paulo)
America/Noronha	Horário de Fernando de Noronha

If you are not concerned with historical time zone differences at all, then pass DateTimeOffset.UtcNow to return only time zones that differ in the future.

var zones = TZNames.GetTimeZonesForCountry("BR", "pt-BR", DateTimeOffset.UtcNow);

Output

Key	Value
America/Rio_Branco	Horário do Acre
America/Manaus	Horário do Amazonas (Manaus)
America/Cuiaba	Horário do Amazonas (Cuiabá)
America/Bahia	Horário de Brasília (Bahia)
America/Sao_Paulo	Horário de Brasília (São Paulo)
America/Noronha	Horário de Fernando de Noronha

GetTimeZoneIdsForCountry

Get a list of time zone identifiers for a specific country. Similar to the GetTimeZonesForCountry method, but without localized names.

string[] zones = TZNames.GetTimeZoneIdsForCountry("AU");

Output

Australia/Perth
Australia/Eucla
Australia/Darwin
Australia/Broken_Hill
Australia/Adelaide
Australia/Brisbane
Australia/Lindeman
Australia/Hobart
Australia/Currie
Australia/Melbourne
Australia/Sydney
Australia/Lord_Howe
Antarctica/Macquarie

Like the GetTimeZonesForCountry method, an optional threshold parameter is supported for limiting the list to those zones that vary only after a specific date.

string[] zones = TZNames.GetTimeZoneIdsForCountry("AU", DateTimeOffset.Now);

Output

Australia/Perth
Australia/Eucla
Australia/Darwin
Australia/Adelaide
Australia/Brisbane
Australia/Sydney
Australia/Lord_Howe
Antarctica/Macquarie

GetFixedTimeZoneIds

Gets a list of time zone IDs that represent fixed offset from UTC, including UTC itself. Note that time zones of the form Etc/GMT[+/-]n use an inverted sign from the usual conventions.