what are the ISO standard names and 3-letter abbreviations for the 24
time zones in the world, under UTC?  I want this to include the offset
from UTC for each zone.

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 06 Mar 2003 14:02 PST

Dear swessman,

1. ISO-8601, the norm for date and time zone formats, does not use
names and abbrevations at all. The ISO format indicates the
geographical position by numerical combinations.

2. The traditional alphabetical time zone names and their
abbreviations are not standardized. There are over 300 of them, with
many time zones having multiple names. Also, the abbreviations do not
always have 3 letters.

Under these circumstances, do you want to re-phrase your question to
make sure you get the information you desire?

Regards,
Scriptor

---

Clarification of Question by swessman-ga on 06 Mar 2003 14:54 PST

i guess what I'm looking for is an expansion of what I understand to
be somewhat standard three letter abbreviations like MST (Mountain
Standard Time), EST (Eastern Standard Time), etc.  Is there a similar
name for each time zone in the world, or is this applicable only to
parts?  I'm especially unclear about names for time zones
corresponding to the following offsets: UTC +4 through UTC +12; UTC -1
through UTC -3; and UTC -9 through UTC -12.  Let me know if there are
further questions.

Dear swessman,

This list should meet your needs. It lists the most common time zone
names and their abbreviations for all time zones:

UTC
GMT - Greenwich Mean Time
UT - Universal Time
UTC - Universal Co-ordinated Time
WET - Western European Time

UTC+1
CET - Central Europe Time

UTC+2
EET - Eastern Europe Time

UTC+3
MSK - Moscow Time

UTC+3:30
IRT - Iran Time

UTC+4
SAMT - Samara Time

UTC+5
YEKT - Yekaterinburg Time
TMT - Turkmanistan Time
TJT - Tadjikistan/Pakistan Time

UTC+6
OMST - Omsk Time
NOVT - Novosibirsk Time
LKT - Lankan/Bangla Desh Time

UTC+6:30
MMT - Myanmar Time

UTC+7
KRAT - Krasnoyarsk Time
ICT - Indochina Time
WIT - West Indonesia Time
WAST - West Australian Standard Time

UTC+8
IRKT - Irkutsk Time
ULAT - Ulan Bator Time
CST - China Standard Time
CIT - Central Indonesia Time
BNT - Brunei Time

UTC+9
YAKT - Yakutsk Time
JST - Japan Standard Time
KST - Korea Standard Time
EIT - East Indonesia Time

UTC+9:30
ACST - Australian Central Standard Time

UTC+10
VLAT - Vladivostok Time
SAKT - Sakhalin Time Time
GST - Guam Standard Time

UTC+11
MAGT - Magadan Time

UTC+12
IDLE - International Date Line East
PETT - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski Time
NZST - New Zealand Standard Time

UTC-1
WAT - West African Time

UTC-2
AT - Azores Time

UTC-3
EBT - Eastern Brazilian Time

UTC-3:30
NT - Newfoundland Time

UTC-4
WBT - Western Brazilian Time
AST - Atlantic Standard Time

UTC-5
EST - Eastern Standard Time

UTC-6
CST - Central Standard Time

UTC-7
MST - Mountain Standard Time

UTC-8
PST - Pacific Standard Time

UTC-9
YST - Yukon Standard Time

UTC-10
AHST - Alaska-Hawaii Standard Time
CAT - Central Alaska Time
HST - Hawaii Standard Time

UTC-11
NT - Nome Time

UTC-12
IDLW - International Date Line West 


Please note that no authority has ever set standards for the
classification of time zones, their names and the abbreviations. But
the terms and codes used in the list should be the most common ones,
since I found them in many time zone tables. Not included in this list
are the Summer Times etc. For more information, please have a look at
the time zone charts listed below.

Sources:

Designschulz: Zeitzonentabelle
http://www.designschulz.de/2002pre1/links_zeitzonen.html

TimeAndDate.com: Time Zone Abbreviations
http://www.timeanddate.com/time/abbreviations.html

amcon: International Time Zones
http://www.amcon-luxled.com/time/zones.html

WorldTimeZone.com: Abbreviation(s)
http://www.worldtimezone.com/wtz-names/timezonenames.html

Search terms used:
"time zones" cet eet pst "gmt+4"
://www.google.de/search?q=%22time+zones%22+cet+eet+pst+%22gmt%2B4%22&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&start=10&sa=N
"time zone names" cet eet pst
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22time+zone+names%22+cet+eet+pst&meta=

Hope this helps!
Best regards,
Scriptor

This was a good answer, given that the answer was not a standard.  The
tip is for a quick turnaround.  Thanks!

Just to add to the answer already given. 
 
There is no standard for timezone codes. Sometimes different timezones
commonly use the same code for example EST (eastern standard time)
refers to both the timezones on the eastern coasts of the USA (UTC-5)
and Australia (UTC+10).  While IST denotes both "Israel Standard Time"
and "Indian Standard Time".

Can I persuade you to use just numeric offsets, or better still just
record everything in UTC?


A date and time shown as 2003-03-23 08:00 JST actually occurs an hour
or two before 2003-03-22 20:00 EST, but this is non-obvious from the
data.

Rewriting as 2003-03-23 08:00 +0900  and as  2003-03-22 20:00 -0500
gives a better clue, but still requires some thought.

Those convert to 2003-03-22 23:00 and 2003-03-23 01:00 by the way.



See:  http://directory.google.com/Top/Science/Reference/Standards/Individual_Standards/ISO_8601/

and in particular: http://serendipity.magnet.ch/hermetic/cal_stud/newman.htm

and:  ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc3339.txt

and:  http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/NOTE-datetime-19980827

for more inforamation.


Don't forget about Daylight Savings Time, and don't get caught by the
Southern hemisphere being an hour ahead of their Standard time during
the Northern Winter. As the Southern hemisphere is putting theor
clocks back an hour, the Northern hemisphere is adding an hour. This
doesn't happen on the same date for all countries resulting in
staggered changes.


See also:  http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst2003b.html

>> Those convert to 2003-03-22 23:00 and 2003-03-23 01:00 by the way. <<


should have read:

 
Those convert to 2003-03-22 23:00 _UTC_ and 2003-03-23 01:00 _UTC_ by the way.