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5<head><title>How to Read the tz Database</title></head>
6<body>
7<h2>How to Read the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database">tz
8Database</a> Source Files</h2>
9<h3>by Bill Seymour</h3>
10<p>This page uses the <code>America/Chicago</code> and
11<code>Pacific/Honolulu</code> zones as examples of how to infer
12times of day from the <a href="tz-link.htm">tz database</a>
13source files. It might be helpful, but not absolutely necessary,
14for the reader to have already downloaded the
15<a href="http://www.iana.org/time-zones/repository/tzdata-latest.tar.gz">latest
16release of the database</a> and become familiar with the basic layout
17of the data files. The format is explained in the &ldquo;man
18page&rdquo; for the zic compiler, <code>zic.8.txt</code>, in
19the <code>code</code> subdirectory.</p>
20
21<p>We&rsquo;ll begin by talking about the rules for changing between standard
22and daylight saving time since we&rsquo;ll need that information when we talk
23about the zones.</p>
24
25<p>First, let&rsquo;s consider the special daylight saving time rules
26for Chicago (from the <code>northamerica</code> file in
27the <code>data</code> subdirectory):</p>
28
29<table border="1">
30<tr>
31  <th colspan="6">From the Source File</th>
32</tr>
33<tr>
34  <td colspan="6" align="center"><table><tr><td>
35<pre>
36#Rule NAME    FROM TO   TYPE IN  ON      AT   SAVE LETTER
37Rule  Chicago 1920 only  -   Jun 13      2:00 1:00 D
38Rule  Chicago 1920 1921  -   Oct lastSun 2:00 0    S
39Rule  Chicago 1921 only  -   Mar lastSun 2:00 1:00 D
40Rule  Chicago 1922 1966  -   Apr lastSun 2:00 1:00 D
41Rule  Chicago 1922 1954  -   Sep lastSun 2:00 0    S
42Rule  Chicago 1955 1966  -   Oct lastSun 2:00 0    S
43</pre>
44  </td></tr></table></td>
45</tr>
46<tr>
47  <th colspan="6">Reformatted a Bit</th>
48</tr>
49<tr>
50  <th>From</th>
51  <th>To</th>
52  <th colspan="2">On</th>
53  <th>At</th>
54  <th>Action</th>
55</tr>
56<tr align="center">
57  <td colspan="2">1920 only</td>
58  <td colspan="2">June 13<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
59  <td rowspan="6">02:00 local</td>
60  <td>go to daylight saving time</td>
61</tr>
62<tr align="center">
63  <td>1920</td>
64  <td>1921</td>
65  <td rowspan="5">last Sunday</td>
66  <td>in October</td>
67  <td>return to standard time</td>
68</tr>
69<tr align="center">
70  <td colspan="2">1921 only</td>
71  <td>in March</td>
72  <td rowspan="2">go to daylight saving time</td>
73</tr>
74<tr align="center">
75  <td rowspan="2">1922</td>
76  <td>1966</td>
77  <td>in April</td>
78</tr>
79<tr align="center">
80  <td>1954</td>
81  <td>in September</td>
82  <td rowspan="2">return to standard time</td>
83</tr>
84<tr align="center">
85  <td>1955</td>
86  <td>1966</td>
87  <td>in October</td>
88</tr>
89</table>
90
91<p>We&rsquo;ll basically just ignore the <code>TYPE</code> column.
92In the 2007j release, the most recent as of this writing, the
93<code>TYPE</code> column never contains anything but a hyphen,
94a kind of null value. (From the description in <code>zic.8.txt</code>,
95this appears to be a mechanism for removing years from a set
96in some localizable way. It&rsquo;s used in the file, <code>pacificnew</code>,
97to determine whether a given year will have a US presidential election;
98but everything related to that use is commented out.)
99
100<p>The <code>SAVE</code> column contains the wall clock offset from
101local standard time.
102This is usually either zero for standard time or one hour for daylight
103saving time; but there&rsquo;s no reason, in principle, why it can&rsquo;t
104take on other values.
105
106<p>The <code>LETTER</code> (sometimes called <code>LETTER/S</code>)
107column can contain a variable
108part of the usual abbreviation of the time zone&rsquo;s name, or it can just
109be a hyphen if there&rsquo;s no variable part. For example, the abbreviation
110used in the central time zone will be either &ldquo;CST&rdquo; or
111&ldquo;CDT&rdquo;. The variable part is &lsquo;S&rsquo; or &lsquo;D&rsquo;;
112and, sure enough, that&rsquo;s just what we find in
113the <code>LETTER</code> column
114in the <code>Chicago</code> rules. More about this when we talk about
115&ldquo;Zone&rdquo; lines.
116
117<p>One important thing to notice is that &ldquo;Rule&rdquo; lines
118want at once to be both <i>transitions</i> and <i>steady states</i>:
119<ul>
120<li>On the one hand, they represent transitions between standard and
121daylight saving time; and any number of Rule lines can be in effect
122during a given period (which will always be a non-empty set of
123contiguous calendar years).</li>
124<li>On the other hand, the <code>SAVE</code> and <code>LETTER</code>
125columns contain state that exists between transitions. More about this
126when we talk about the US rules.</li>
127</ul>
128
129<p>In the example above, the transition to daylight saving time
130happened on the 13<small><sup>th</sup></small> of June in 1920, and on
131the last Sunday in March in 1921; but the return to standard time
132happened on the last Sunday in October in both of those
133years. Similarly, the rule for changing to daylight saving time was
134the same from 1922 to 1966; but the rule for returning to standard
135time changed in 1955. Got it?</p>
136
137<p>OK, now for the somewhat more interesting &ldquo;US&rdquo; rules:</p>
138
139<table border="1">
140<tr>
141  <th colspan="6">From the Source File</th>
142</tr>
143<tr>
144  <td colspan="6" align="center"><table><tr><td>
145<pre>
146#Rule NAME FROM TO   TYPE IN  ON        AT   SAVE LETTER/S
147Rule  US   1918 1919  -   Mar lastSun  2:00  1:00 D
148Rule  US   1918 1919  -   Oct lastSun  2:00  0    S
149Rule  US   1942 only  -   Feb 9        2:00  1:00 W # War
150Rule  US   1945 only  -   Aug 14      23:00u 1:00 P # Peace
151Rule  US   1945 only  -   Sep 30       2:00  0    S
152Rule  US   1967 2006  -   Oct lastSun  2:00  0    S
153Rule  US   1967 1973  -   Apr lastSun  2:00  1:00 D
154Rule  US   1974 only  -   Jan 6        2:00  1:00 D
155Rule  US   1975 only  -   Feb 23       2:00  1:00 D
156Rule  US   1976 1986  -   Apr lastSun  2:00  1:00 D
157Rule  US   1987 2006  -   Apr Sun&gt;=1   2:00  1:00 D
158Rule  US   2007 max   -   Mar Sun&gt;=8   2:00  1:00 D
159Rule  US   2007 max   -   Nov Sun&gt;=1   2:00  0    S
160</pre>
161  </td></tr></table></td>
162</tr>
163<tr>
164  <th colspan="6">Reformatted a Bit</th>
165</tr>
166<tr>
167  <th>From</th>
168  <th>To</th>
169  <th colspan="2">On</th>
170  <th>At</th>
171  <th>Action</th>
172</tr>
173<tr align="center">
174  <td rowspan="2">1918</td>
175  <td rowspan="2">1919</td>
176  <td rowspan="2">last Sunday</td>
177  <td>in March</td>
178  <td rowspan="3">02:00 local</td>
179  <td>go to daylight saving time</td>
180</tr>
181<tr align="center">
182  <td>in October</td>
183  <td>return to standard time</td>
184</tr>
185<tr align="center">
186  <td colspan="2">1942 only</td>
187  <td colspan="2">February 9<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
188  <td>go to &ldquo;war time&rdquo;</td>
189</tr>
190<tr align="center">
191  <td colspan="2" rowspan="2">1945 only</td>
192  <td colspan="2">August 14<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
193  <td>23:00 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time">UT</a></td>
194  <td>
195    rename &ldquo;war time&rdquo; to &ldquo;peace<br>time;&rdquo;
196    clocks don&rsquo;t change
197  </td>
198</tr>
199<tr align="center">
200  <td colspan="2">September 30<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
201  <td rowspan="9">02:00 local</td>
202  <td rowspan="2">return to standard time</td>
203</tr>
204<tr align="center">
205  <td rowspan="2">1967</td>
206  <td>2006</td>
207  <td rowspan="2">last Sunday</td>
208  <td>in October</td>
209</tr>
210<tr align="center">
211  <td>1973</td>
212  <td>in April</td>
213  <td rowspan="6">go to daylight saving time</td>
214</tr>
215<tr align="center">
216  <td colspan="2">1974 only</td>
217  <td colspan="2">January 6<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
218</tr>
219<tr align="center">
220  <td colspan="2">1975 only</td>
221  <td colspan="2">February 23<small><sup>rd</sup></small></td>
222</tr>
223<tr align="center">
224  <td>1976</td>
225  <td>1986</td>
226  <td>last Sunday</td>
227  <td rowspan="2">in April</td>
228</tr>
229<tr align="center">
230  <td>1987</td>
231  <td>2006</td>
232  <td>first Sunday</td>
233</tr>
234<tr align="center">
235  <td rowspan="2">2007</td>
236  <td rowspan="2">present</td>
237  <td colspan="2">second Sunday in March</td>
238</tr>
239<tr align="center">
240  <td colspan="2">first Sunday in November</td>
241  <td>return to standard time</td>
242</tr>
243</table>
244
245<p>There are two interesting things to note here.</p>
246
247<p>First, the time that something happens (in the <code>AT</code>
248column) is not necessarily the local wall clock time. The time can be
249suffixed with &lsquo;s&rsquo; (for &ldquo;standard&rdquo;) to mean
250local standard time (different from wall clock time when observing
251daylight saving time); or it can be suffixed with &lsquo;g&rsquo;,
252&lsquo;u&rsquo;, or &lsquo;z&rsquo;, all three of which mean the
253standard time at the
254<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Meridian">prime meridan</a>.
255&lsquo;g&rsquo; stands for &ldquo;<a
256href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Mean_Time">GMT</a>&rdquo;;
257&lsquo;u&rsquo; stands for &ldquo;<a
258href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time">UT</a>&rdquo; or &ldquo;<a
259href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time">UTC</a>&rdquo;
260(whichever was official at the time); &lsquo;z&rsquo; stands for the
261<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_time">nautical time zone</a>
262Z (a.k.a. &ldquo;Zulu&rdquo; which, in turn, stands for &lsquo;Z&rsquo;).
263The time can also be suffixed with &lsquo;w&rsquo; meaning &ldquo;wall
264clock time;&rdquo; but it usually isn&rsquo;t because that&rsquo;s the
265default.</p>
266
267<p>Second, the day in the <code>ON</code> column, in addition to
268&ldquo;<code>lastSun</code>&rdquo; or a particular day of the month,
269can have the form, &ldquo;<code>Sun&gt;=</code><i>x</i>&rdquo; or
270&ldquo;<code>Sun&lt;=</code><i>x</i>,&rdquo; where <i>x</i> is a day
271of the month. For example, &ldquo;<code>Sun&gt;=8</code>&rdquo; means
272&ldquo;the first Sunday on or after the eighth of the month,&rdquo; in
273other words, the second Sunday of the month. Furthermore, although
274there are no examples above, the weekday needn&rsquo;t be
275&ldquo;<code>Sun</code>&rdquo; in either form, but can be the usual
276three-character English abbreviation for any day of the week.</p>
277
278<p>And the US rules give us more examples of a couple of things
279already mentioned:</p>
280
281<ul>
282<li>The rules for changing to and from daylight saving time are
283actually <i>different sets</i> of rules; and the two sets can change
284independently. Consider, for example, that the rule for the return to
285standard time stayed the same from 1967 to 2006; but the rule for the
286transition to daylight saving time changed several times in the same
287period.  There can also be periods, 1946 to 1966 for example, when no
288rule from this group is in effect, and so either no transition
289happened in those years, or some other rule is in effect (perhaps a
290state or other more local rule).</li>
291
292<li>The <code>SAVE</code> and <code>LETTER</code> columns
293contain <i>steady state</i>, not transitions. Consider, for example,
294the transition from &ldquo;war time&rdquo; to &ldquo;peace time&rdquo;
295that happened on August 14, 1945. The &ldquo;1:00&rdquo; in
296the <code>SAVE</code> column is <i>not</i> an instruction to advance
297the clock an hour. It means that clocks should <i>be</i> one hour
298ahead of standard time, which they already are because of the previous
299rule, so there should be no change.</li>
300
301</ul>
302
303<p>OK, now let&rsquo;s look at a Zone record:</p>
304
305<table border="1">
306<tr>
307  <th colspan="5">From the Source File</th>
308</tr>
309<tr>
310  <td colspan="6" align="center"><table><tr><td>
311<pre>
312#Zone       NAME      GMTOFF   RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
313Zone  America/Chicago -5:50:36 -       LMT  1883 Nov 18 12:09:24
314                      -6:00    US      C%sT 1920
315                      -6:00    Chicago C%sT 1936 Mar  1  2:00
316                      -5:00    -       EST  1936 Nov 15  2:00
317                      -6:00    Chicago C%sT 1942
318                      -6:00    US      C%sT 1946
319                      -6:00    Chicago C%sT 1967
320                      -6:00    US      C%sT
321</pre>
322  </td></tr></table></td>
323</tr>
324<tr>
325  <th colspan="5">Columns Renamed</th>
326</tr>
327<tr>
328  <th rowspan="2">Standard Offset<br>
329    from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Meridian">Prime
330    Meridian</a></th>
331  <th rowspan="2">Daylight<br>Saving Time</th>
332  <th rowspan="2">Abbreviation(s)</th>
333  <th colspan="2">Ending at Local Time</th>
334</tr>
335<tr>
336  <th>Date</th>
337  <th>Time</th>
338</tr>
339<tr align="center">
340  <td>&minus;5:50:36</td>
341  <td>not observed</td>
342  <td>LMT</td>
343  <td>1883-11-18</td>
344  <td>12:09:24</td>
345</tr>
346<tr align="center">
347  <td rowspan="2">&minus;6:00:00</td>
348  <td>US rules</td>
349  <td rowspan="2">CST or CDT</td>
350  <td>1920-01-01</td>
351  <td>00:00:00</td>
352</tr>
353<tr align="center">
354  <td>Chicago rules</td>
355  <td>1936-03-01</td>
356  <td rowspan="2">02:00:00</td>
357</tr>
358<tr align="center">
359  <td>&minus;5:00:00</td>
360  <td>not observed</td>
361  <td>EST</td>
362  <td>1936-11-15</td>
363</tr>
364<tr align="center">
365  <td rowspan="4">&minus;6:00:00</td>
366  <td>Chicago rules</td>
367  <td>CST or CDT</td>
368  <td>1942-01-01</td>
369  <td rowspan="3">00:00:00</td>
370</tr>
371<tr align="center">
372  <td>US rules</td>
373  <td>CST, CWT or CPT</td>
374  <td>1946-01-01</td>
375</tr>
376<tr align="center">
377  <td>Chicago rules</td>
378  <td rowspan="2">CST or CDT</td>
379  <td>1967-01-01</td>
380</tr>
381<tr align="center">
382  <td>US rules</td>
383  <td colspan="2">&mdash;</td>
384</tr>
385</table>
386
387<p>There are a couple of interesting differences between Zones and Rules.</p>
388
389<p>First, and somewhat trivially, whereas Rules are considered to
390contain one or more records, a Zone is considered to be a single
391record with zero or more <i>continuation lines</i>. Thus, the keyword,
392&ldquo;<code>Zone</code>,&rdquo; and the zone name are not
393repeated. The last line is the one without anything in
394the <code>[UNTIL]</code> column.</p>
395
396<p>Second, and more fundamentally, each line of a Zone represents a
397steady state, not a transition between states. The state exists from
398the date and time in the previous line&rsquo;s <code>[UNTIL]</code>
399column up to the date and time in the current
400line&rsquo;s <code>[UNTIL]</code> column. In other words, the date and
401time in the <code>[UNTIL]</code> column is the instant that separates
402this state from the next. Where that would be ambiguous because
403we&rsquo;re setting our clocks back, the <code>[UNTIL]</code> column
404specifies the first occurrence of the instant. The state specified by
405the last line, the one without anything in the <code>[UNTIL]</code>
406column, continues to the present.</p>
407
408<p>The first line typically specifies the mean solar time observed
409before the introduction of standard time. Since there&rsquo;s no line before
410that, it has no beginning. <code>8-) </code> For some places near the <a
411href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Date_Line">International
412Date Line</a>, the first <i>two</i> lines will show solar times
413differing by 24 hours; this corresponds to a movement of the Date
414Line.  For example:</p>
415
416<pre>
417#Zone NAME          GMTOFF   RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
418Zone America/Juneau 15:02:19 -     LMT    1867 Oct 18
419                    -8:57:41 -     LMT    ...
420</pre>
421
422<p>When Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867, the Date Line moved
423from the Alaska/Canada border to the Bering Strait; and the time in
424Alaska was then 24 hours earlier than it had
425been. <code>&lt;aside&gt;</code>(6 October in the Julian calendar,
426which Russia was still using then for religious reasons, was followed
427by <i>a second instance of the same day with a different name</i>, 18
428October in the Gregorian calendar. Isn&rsquo;t civil time
429wonderful? <code>8-)</code>)<code>&lt;/aside&gt;</code></p>
430
431<p>The abbreviation, &ldquo;LMT&rdquo; stands for &ldquo;local mean
432time&rdquo;, which is an invention of
433the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database">tz
434database</a> and was probably never actually used during the
435period. Furthermore, the value is almost certainly wrong except in the
436archetypal place after which the zone is named. (The tz database
437usually doesn&rsquo;t provide a separate Zone record for places where
438nothing significant happened after 1970.)</p>
439
440<p>The <code>RULES</code> column tells us whether daylight saving time is being observed:
441<ul>
442<li>A hyphen, a kind of null value, means that we have not set our
443clocks ahead of standard time.</li>
444
445<li>An amount of time (usually but not necessarily &ldquo;1:00&rdquo;
446meaning one hour) means that we have set our clocks ahead by that
447amount.</li>
448
449<li>Some alphabetic string means that we <i>might have</i> set our
450clocks ahead; and we need to check the rule the name of which is the
451given alphabetic string.</li>
452</ul>
453
454<p>An example of a specific amount of time is:</p>
455<pre>
456#Zone NAME            GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
457Zone Pacific/Honolulu ...                 1933 Apr 30 2:00
458                      -10:30 1:00  HDT    1933 May 21 2:00
459                      ...
460</pre>
461
462<p>Hawaii tried daylight saving time for three weeks in 1933 and
463decided they didn&rsquo;t like it. <code>8-) </code>Note that
464the <code>GMTOFF</code> column always contains the standard time
465offset, so the wall clock time during this period was GMT &minus;
46610:30 + 1:00 = GMT &minus; 9:30.</p>
467
468<p>The <code>FORMAT</code> column specifies the usual abbreviation of
469the time zone name. It can have one of three forms:</p>
470<ul>
471
472<li>a string of three or more characters that are either ASCII alphanumerics,
473&ldquo;<code>+</code>&rdquo;, or &ldquo;<code>-</code>&rdquo;,
474in which case that&rsquo;s the abbreviation</li>
475
476<li>a pair of strings separated by a slash
477(&lsquo;<code>/</code>&rsquo;), in which case the first string is the
478abbreviation for the standard time name and the second string is the
479abbreviation for the daylight saving time name</li>
480
481<li>a string containing &ldquo;<code>%s</code>,&rdquo; in which case
482the &ldquo;<code>%s</code>&rdquo; will be replaced by the text in the
483appropriate Rule&rsquo;s <code>LETTER</code> column</li>
484</ul>
485
486<p>The last two make sense only if there&rsquo;s a named rule in effect.</p>
487
488<p>An example of a slash is:</p>
489<pre>
490#Zone NAME          GMTOFF RULES FORMAT  [UNTIL]
491Zone  Europe/London ...                  1996
492                    0:00   EU    GMT/BST
493</pre>
494
495<p>The current time in the UK is called either Greenwich mean time or
496British summer time.</p>
497
498<p>One wrinkle, not fully explained in <code>zic.8.txt</code>, is what
499happens when switching to a named rule. To what values should
500the <code>SAVE</code> and <code>LETTER</code> data be initialized?</p>
501
502<ul>
503<li>If at least one transition has happened, use
504the <code>SAVE</code> and <code>LETTER</code> data from the most
505recent.</li>
506
507<li>If switching to a named rule before any transition has happened,
508assume standard time (<code>SAVE</code> zero), and use
509the <code>LETTER</code> data from the earliest transition with
510a <code>SAVE</code> of zero.
511
512</ul>
513
514<p>And three last things about the <code>FORMAT</code> column:</p>
515<ul>
516
517<li>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database">tz
518database</a> gives abbreviations for time zone names in <i>popular
519usage</i>, which is not necessarily &ldquo;correct&rdquo; by law. For
520example, the last line in
521<code>Zone</code> <code>Pacific/Honolulu</code> (shown below) gives
522&ldquo;HST&rdquo; for &ldquo;Hawaii standard time&rdquo; even though the
523<a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode15/usc_sec_15_00000263----000-.html">legal</a>
524name for that time zone is &ldquo;Hawaii-Aleutian standard time.&rdquo;
525This author has read that there are also some places in Australia where
526popular time zone names differ from the legal ones.
527
528<li>No attempt is made to <a
529href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization">localize</a>
530the abbreviations. They are intended to be the values returned through the
531<code>"%Z"</code> format specifier to
532<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)">C</a>&rsquo;s
533<a href="http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/strftime.html"><code>strftime</code></a>
534function in the
535<a href="http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/chemnet/use/info/libc/libc_19.html#SEC324">&ldquo;C&rdquo; locale</a>.
536
537<li>If there is no generally-accepted abbreviation for a time zone,
538a numeric offset is used instead, e.g., <code>+07</code> for 7 hours
539ahead of Greenwich. By convention, <code>-00</code> is used in a
540zone while uninhabited, where the offset is zero but in some sense
541the true offset is undefined.
542</ul>
543
544<p>As a final example, here&rsquo;s the complete history for Hawaii:</p>
545
546<table border="1">
547<tr>
548  <th colspan="6">Relevant Excerpts from the US Rules</th>
549</tr>
550<tr>
551  <td colspan="6" align="center"><table><tr><td>
552<pre>
553#Rule NAME FROM TO   TYPE IN  ON      AT     SAVE LETTER/S
554Rule  US   1918 1919 -    Oct lastSun  2:00  0    S
555Rule  US   1942 only -    Feb  9       2:00  1:00 W # War
556Rule  US   1945 only -    Aug 14      23:00u 1:00 P # Peace
557Rule  US   1945 only -    Sep 30       2:00  0    S
558</pre>
559  </td></tr></table></td>
560</tr>
561<tr>
562  <th colspan="6">The Zone Record</th>
563</tr>
564<tr>
565  <td colspan="6" align="center"><table><tr><td>
566<pre>
567#Zone NAME            GMTOFF    RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
568Zone Pacific/Honolulu -10:31:26 -     LMT    1900 Jan  1 12:00
569                      -10:30    -     HST    1933 Apr 30  2:00
570                      -10:30    1:00  HDT    1933 May 21  2:00
571                      -10:30    US    H%sT   1947 Jun  8  2:00
572                      -10:00    -     HST
573</pre>
574  </td></tr></table></td>
575</tr>
576<tr>
577  <th colspan="6">What We Infer</th>
578</tr>
579<tr>
580  <th rowspan="2">Wall-Clock<br>Offset from<br>Prime Meridian</th>
581  <th rowspan="2">Adjust<br>Clocks</th>
582  <th colspan="2">Time Zone</th>
583  <th colspan="2">Ending at Local Time</th>
584</tr>
585<tr>
586  <th>Abbrv.</th>
587  <th>Name</th>
588  <th>Date</th>
589  <th>Time</th>
590</tr>
591<tr align="center">
592  <td>&minus;10:31:26</td>
593  <td>&mdash;</td>
594  <td>LMT</td>
595  <td>local mean time</td>
596  <td>1900-01-01</td>
597  <td>12:00</td>
598</tr>
599<tr align="center">
600  <td>&minus;10:30</td>
601  <td>+0:01:26</td>
602  <td>HST</td>
603  <td>Hawaii standard time</td>
604  <td>1933-04-30</td>
605  <td rowspan="3">02:00</td>
606</tr>
607<tr align="center">
608  <td>&minus;9:30</td>
609  <td>+1:00</td>
610  <td>HDT</td>
611  <td>Hawaii daylight time</td>
612  <td>1933-05-21</td>
613</tr>
614<tr align="center">
615  <td>&minus;10:30&sup1;</td>
616  <td>&minus;1:00&sup1;</td>
617  <td>HST&sup1;</td>
618  <td>Hawaii standard time</td>
619  <td>1942-02-09</td>
620</tr>
621<tr align="center">
622  <td rowspan="2">&minus;9:30</td>
623  <td>+1:00</td>
624  <td>HWT</td>
625  <td>Hawaii war time</td>
626  <td>1945-08-14</td>
627  <td>13:30&sup2;</td>
628</tr>
629<tr align="center">
630  <td>0</td>
631  <td>HPT</td>
632  <td>Hawaii peace time</td>
633  <td>1945-09-30</td>
634  <td rowspan="2">02:00</td>
635</tr>
636<tr align="center">
637  <td>&minus;10:30</td>
638  <td>&minus;1:00</td>
639  <td rowspan="2">HST</td>
640  <td rowspan="2">Hawaii standard time</td>
641  <td>1947-06-08</td>
642</tr>
643<tr align="center">
644  <td>&minus;10:00&sup3;</td>
645  <td>+0:30&sup3;</td>
646  <td colspan="2">&mdash;</td>
647</tr>
648<tr>
649  <td colspan="6">
650    &sup1;Switching to US rules&hellip;most recent transition (in 1919) was to standard time
651  </td>
652</tr>
653<tr>
654  <td colspan="6">
655    &sup2;23:00 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time">UT</a>
656    + (&minus;9:30) = 13:30 local
657  </td>
658</tr>
659<tr>
660  <td colspan="6">
661    &sup3;Since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601">1947&ndash;06&ndash;08T12:30Z</a>,
662    the civil time in Hawaii has been
663    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time">UT</a>/<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time">UTC</a>
664    &minus; 10:00 year-round.
665  </td>
666</tr>
667</table>
668
669<p>There will be a short quiz later. <code>8-)</code></p>
670
671<hr>
672<address>
673This web page is in the public domain, so clarified as of
6742015-10-20 by Bill Seymour.
675<br>
676All suggestions and corrections will be welcome; all flames will be amusing.
677Mail to was at pobox dot com.
678</address>
679</body>
680</html>
681