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<div align="center"> <div>parse abbreviated, sloppy, and informal timezone names</div> <div><img src="https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/399657/23590290/ede73772-01aa-11e7-8915-181ef21027bc.png" /></div> <div align="center"> <a href="https://npmjs.org/package/timezone-soft"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/npm/v/timezone-soft.svg?style=flat-square" /> </a>  <a href="https://unpkg.com/timezone-soft/builds/timezone-soft.min.js"> <img src="https://badge-size.herokuapp.com/spencermountain/timezone-soft/master/builds/timezone-soft.min.js" /> </a> </div> <div align="center"> <code>npm install timezone-soft</code> </div> <sub> by <a href="https://spencermountain.github.io/">Spencer Kelly</a> </sub> <div align="center"> <sup><i>(formerly called 'spacetime-informal')</i></sup> </div> </div> <p></p>  <img height="25px" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/399657/68221862-17ceb980-ffb8-11e9-87d4-7b30b6488f16.png"/>

import soft from 'timezone-soft'

// get an IANA tz from user input
let timezones = soft('milwaukee')[0]
/*[{
    iana: 'America/Chicago',
    standard: { name: 'Central Standard Time', abbrev: 'CST' },
    daylight: { name: 'Central Daylight Time', abbrev: 'CDT' }
  }
]*/

<img height="25px" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/399657/68221862-17ceb980-ffb8-11e9-87d4-7b30b6488f16.png"/>

IANA timezone codes are the official reference for timezone information, and is what you should use, whenever possible.

Humans though, are goofballs, and use a whole different informal scheme:

In (North) America: PST, MST, EST...
in Europe (lately): WEST, CEST, EEST...
in Africa: EAT, CAT, WAST...
in Australia: AWST, AEDT, ACST...

these line-up with the IANA codes sometimes.

...other times they don't.

<img height="15px" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/399657/68221862-17ceb980-ffb8-11e9-87d4-7b30b6488f16.png"/>

These names also collide -

'IST' is used to mean:

'Indian Stardard Time'
'Irish Stardard Time'
'Israeli Stardard Time'

These names also produce all-sorts of ambiguities, regarding DST-changes-

Both Winnipeg and Mexico City are CST, but have a much different DST schedule:

(thanks timeanddate.com!)

-of course, there's a bunch of political/historical/disputed stuff going on, too. Apologies if this library steps into that unknowingly.

...so that's what we're trying to fix - to 'soften' this exchange, between human and IANA timezone nomenclature, using some opinionated-but-common-sense rules and decision-making.

It was originally built for use in the spacetime timezone library.

<img height="25px" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/399657/68221862-17ceb980-ffb8-11e9-87d4-7b30b6488f16.png"/>

Usage

const soft = require('timezone-soft')

soft('EST')
// 'America/New_York'

soft('central')
// 'America/Chicago'

soft('venezuela')
// 'America/Caracas'

soft('south east asia')
// 'Asia/Bangkok'

Typescript/Deno/Webpack:

import soft from 'timezone-soft'

it was built to be as forgiving as possible, and return the most common-sense IANA timezone id from user-input.

<img height="25px" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/399657/68221862-17ceb980-ffb8-11e9-87d4-7b30b6488f16.png"/>

DST

Often, the proper timezone name will depend on which date you are referencing. You can reckon this pretty-easily with spacetime, like this:

const spacetime = require('spacetime')
const soft = require('timezone-soft')

let display = soft('montreal')[0]
let show = display.standard.abbrev

// are we in standard time, or daylight time?
let s = spacetime.now(display.iana)
if (display.daylight && s.isDST()) {
  show = display.daylight.abbrev
}
console.log(s.time() + ' ' + show)
// '4:20pm EDT'

<img height="25px" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/399657/68221862-17ceb980-ffb8-11e9-87d4-7b30b6488f16.png"/>

work-in-progress!

Awesome

these line-up with the IANA codes sometimes.

...other times they don't.

Usage

DST

See also