Suretime
Map nonstandard timezones to IANA zones on all platforms. Record timestamps and intervals that behave correctly, even if the timezone changes in the middle of a calculation. pip install suretime tzdata.
Timezone mapping
To get the local zone in IANA:
from suretime import Suretime, datetime
datetime.now().tzname() # "Pacific Standard Time"
Suretime.zones.first_local() # ZoneInfo[America/Los_Angeles])
To map a nonstandard zone from elsewhere:
from suretime import Suretime
Suretime.zones.only("Europe/Tiraspol") # ZoneInfo[Europe/Tiraspol]
Suretime.zones.first("Central Pacific Standard Time") # ZoneInfo[Pacific/Guadalcanal]
Suretime.zones.first("Central Pacific Standard Time", territory="AQ") # ZoneInfo[Antarctica/Casey]
Note that there is no 1-1 mapping between Windows and IANA timezones, so suretime can fail despite its name.
"Tagged" datetimes and intervals
Suretime also has models to represent timestamps and intervals as accurately as the system permits. For example, a TaggedInterval contains the wall time, IANA zone, original (unmapped) timezone info from the system, monotonic (typically boottime) clock time, and the clock used.
Timezone-resolved datetimes and intervals know both real and calendar times, correctly representing the ground truth even if a timezone shift occurs between events – such as from a daylight savings change or the user boarding a flight.
from suretime import Suretime
tagged = Suretime.tagged.now()
tagged.to_utc # TaggedDateTime[...]
tagged.clock.name # "boottime" on most systems
tagged == tagged # same point in time
tagged.iso_with_zone # "2021-01-20T22:24:13.219253-07:00 [America/Los_Angeles]"
Comparison to tzlocal
tzlocal is a bit different. It:
- ... only handles your current system’s timezone
- ... is highly OS-specific
- ... requires many system calls, making it typically much slower
- ... is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, and 7 and below
- ... is compatible with Python 3.6, 3.7, and 3.8
- ... very rarely, can access timezones on incorrectly configured POSIX systems
You can combine both packages, falling back to tzlocal if suretime fails. (See the example below).
Full example
from suretime import Suretime, datetime
# Get your local system, non-IANA timezone
system_time = datetime.now().astimezone()
system_timezone = system_time.tzname() # e.g. Pacific Standard Time
# Get an IANA timezone instead:
Suretime.zones.only_local() # ZoneInfo[America/Los_Angeles]
# Or for an arbitrary system timezone name:
Suretime.zones.first(system_timezone) # ZoneInfo[America/Los_Angeles]
# Of course, it maps IANA zones to themselves:
Suretime.zones.only("America/Los_Angeles") # ZoneInfo[America/Los_Angeles]
# Get all IANA timezones that could match a zone
# The first uses the primary/null territory
# The second uses the territory "AQ"
Suretime.zones.all("Central Pacific Standard Time") # {ZoneInfo[Pacific/Guadalcanal]}
Suretime.zones.all("Central Pacific Standard Time", "AQ") # {ZoneInfo[Antarctica/Casey]}
# Get 1 matching IANA zone; "get" means optional
Suretime.zones.first("Central Pacific Standard Time", "AQ") # ZoneInfo[Pacific/Casey]
Suretime.zones.first("nonexistent zone") # None
Suretime.zones.only("nonexistent zone") # errors
Suretime.zones.only("Central Pacific Standard Time", "any") # fails (multiple possible IANA zones)
# Get a fully resolved "tagged datetime"
# It contains:
# - The zoned datetime
# - The primary IANA ZoneInfo
# - The original system timezone
# - A system wall time (`time.monotonic_ns`)
tagged = Suretime.tagged.now_local_sys() # TaggedDatetime[ ... ]
print(tagged.clock.name) # e.g. "boottime"
# or NTP:
tagged = Suretime.tagged.now_local_ntp(server="north-america", kind="server-received") # TaggedDatetime[ ... ]
# or fully reliable but not keeping the local zone:
tagged = Suretime.tagged.now_utc_ntp() # TaggedDatetime[ ... ]
# or NTP:
tagged = Suretime.tagged.now_local_sys() # TaggedDatetime[ ... ]
print(tagged.clock.name) # "ntp:..."
print(tagged.clock.info.resolution) # e.g. -7
# 2021-01-20T22:24:13.219253-07:00 [America/Los_Angeles]
print(tagged.iso_with_zone) # <datetime> [zone]
print(tagged.source.territory) # "primary"
# if you only need the real time:
Suretime.clocks.sys()
# or:
Suretime.clocks.ntp()
# or for all of the NTP clock times:
ntp_data = Suretime.clocks.ntp_raw()
print(ntp_data.root_dispersion)
print(ntp_data.server_sent, ntp_data.client_received)
print(ntp_data.round_trip.total_seconds())
# Adjust a tagged time to a new real time
tagged = Suretime.tagged.now_utc_sys() # TaggedDatetime[ ... ]
sys_now = Suretime.clocks.sys()
tagged.at(sys_now)
# now the datetime is adjusted to where it should be at the new real time
# Compare tagged datetimes
print(tagged < tagged) # False
print(tagged == tagged) # True: They're the same point in time
print(tagged == system_time) # True: They're the same point in time
print(tagged.is_identical_to(tagged)) # True: They're exactly the same
# Get a "tagged duration" with the start and end, and monotonic real time in nanoseconds
then = Suretime.tagged.now() # TaggedDatetime [ ... ]
for i in list(range(10000)): i += 1 # Just waiting a little
now = Suretime.tagged.now() # TaggedInterval [ ... ]
interval = Suretime.tagged.interval(then, now) # TaggedInterval [ ... ]
print(interval.real_delta) # Actual time passed
print(interval.wall_delta) # Simple end - start
print(interval.iso) # start--end in ISO 8601 format
print(interval.real_str) # days:HH:mm:ss.millis.micros.nanos
print(interval.duration.iso) # e.g. P0Y3M5DT14H22M35.223051S
# use suretime, fall back to tzlocal
import tzlocal
def get_local() -> Suretime.Types.TaggedDatetime:
try:
return Suretime.tagged.now()
except Suretime.Errors.CannotMapTzError:
zone = tzlocal.get_localzone()
return Suretime.tagged.exact(datetime.now(zone))
