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4<title>How to Read the tz Database</title>
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17<h2>How to Read the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database">tz
18Database</a> Source Files</h2>
19<h3>by Bill Seymour</h3>
20<p>This guide uses the <code>America/Chicago</code> and
21<code>Pacific/Honolulu</code> zones as examples of how to infer
22times of day from the <a href="tz-link.html">tz database</a>
23source files. It might be helpful, but not absolutely necessary,
24for the reader to have already downloaded the
25latest release of the database and become familiar with the basic layout
26of the data files. The format is explained in the &ldquo;man
27page&rdquo; for the zic compiler, <code>zic.8.txt</code>, in
28the <code>code</code> subdirectory.
29Although this guide covers many of the common cases, it is not a
30complete summary of what zic accepts; the man page is the
31authoritative reference.</p>
32
33<p>We&rsquo;ll begin by talking about the rules for changing between standard
34and daylight saving time since we&rsquo;ll need that information when we talk
35about the zones.</p>
36
37<p>First, let&rsquo;s consider the special daylight saving time rules
38for Chicago (from the <code>northamerica</code> file in
39the <code>data</code> subdirectory):</p>
40
41<table>
42<tr>
43  <th colspan="6">From the Source File</th>
44</tr>
45<tr>
46  <td colspan="6">
47    <table class="rule">
48      <tr><td style="border:none;text-align:left">
49<pre class="td">
50#Rule NAME    FROM TO    -   IN  ON      AT   SAVE LETTER
51Rule  Chicago 1920 only  -   Jun 13      2:00 1:00 D
52Rule  Chicago 1920 1921  -   Oct lastSun 2:00 0    S
53Rule  Chicago 1921 only  -   Mar lastSun 2:00 1:00 D
54Rule  Chicago 1922 1966  -   Apr lastSun 2:00 1:00 D
55Rule  Chicago 1922 1954  -   Sep lastSun 2:00 0    S
56Rule  Chicago 1955 1966  -   Oct lastSun 2:00 0    S
57</pre>
58  </td></tr></table></td>
59</tr>
60<tr>
61  <th colspan="6">Reformatted a Bit</th>
62</tr>
63<tr>
64  <th>From</th>
65  <th>To</th>
66  <th colspan="2">On</th>
67  <th>At</th>
68  <th>Action</th>
69</tr>
70<tr>
71  <td colspan="2">1920 only</td>
72  <td colspan="2">June 13<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
73  <td rowspan="6">02:00 local</td>
74  <td>go to daylight saving time</td>
75</tr>
76<tr>
77  <td>1920</td>
78  <td>1921</td>
79  <td rowspan="5">last Sunday</td>
80  <td>in October</td>
81  <td>return to standard time</td>
82</tr>
83<tr>
84  <td colspan="2">1921 only</td>
85  <td>in March</td>
86  <td rowspan="2">go to daylight saving time</td>
87</tr>
88<tr>
89  <td rowspan="2">1922</td>
90  <td>1966</td>
91  <td>in April</td>
92</tr>
93<tr>
94  <td>1954</td>
95  <td>in September</td>
96  <td rowspan="2">return to standard time</td>
97</tr>
98<tr>
99  <td>1955</td>
100  <td>1966</td>
101  <td>in October</td>
102</tr>
103</table>
104
105<p>The <code>FROM</code> and <code>TO</code> columns, respectively, specify the
106first and last calendar years defining a contiguous range over which a specific
107Rule line is to apply.  The keyword <code>only</code> can be used in the
108<code>TO</code> field to repeat the value of the <code>FROM</code> field in the
109event that a rule should only apply to a single year.  Often, the keyword
110<code>max</code> is used to extend a rule&rsquo;s application into the
111indefinite future; it is a platform-agnostic stand-in for the largest
112representable year.
113
114<p>The next column, <code>-</code>, is reserved; for compatibility with earlier
115releases, it always contains a hyphen, which acts as a kind of null value.
116Prior to the 2020b release, it was called the <code>TYPE</code> field, though
117it had not been used in the main data since the 2000e release.
118An obsolescent supplementary file used the
119field as a proof-of-concept to allow <code>zic</code> to apply a given Rule
120line only to certain &ldquo;types&rdquo; of years within the specified range as
121dictated by the output of a separate script, such as: only years which would
122have a US presidential election, or only years which wouldn&rsquo;t.
123
124<p>The <code>SAVE</code> column contains the local (wall clock) offset from
125local standard time.
126This is usually either zero for standard time or one hour for daylight
127saving time; but there&rsquo;s no reason, in principle, why it can&rsquo;t
128take on other values.
129
130<p>The <code>LETTER</code> (sometimes called <code>LETTER/S</code>)
131column can contain a variable
132part of the usual abbreviation of the time zone&rsquo;s name, or it can just
133be a hyphen if there&rsquo;s no variable part. For example, the abbreviation
134used in the central time zone will be either &ldquo;CST&rdquo; or
135&ldquo;CDT&rdquo;. The variable part is &lsquo;S&rsquo; or &lsquo;D&rsquo;;
136and, sure enough, that&rsquo;s just what we find in
137the <code>LETTER</code> column
138in the <code>Chicago</code> rules. More about this when we talk about
139&ldquo;Zone&rdquo; lines.
140
141<p>One important thing to notice is that &ldquo;Rule&rdquo; lines
142want at once to be both <i>transitions</i> and <i>steady states</i>:
143<ul>
144<li>On the one hand, they represent transitions between standard and
145daylight saving time; and any number of Rule lines can be in effect
146during a given period (which will always be a non-empty set of
147contiguous calendar years).</li>
148<li>On the other hand, the <code>SAVE</code> and <code>LETTER</code>
149columns contain state that exists between transitions. More about this
150when we talk about the US rules.</li>
151</ul>
152
153<p>In the example above, the transition to daylight saving time
154happened on the 13<small><sup>th</sup></small> of June in 1920, and on
155the last Sunday in March in 1921; but the return to standard time
156happened on the last Sunday in October in both of those
157years. Similarly, the rule for changing to daylight saving time was
158the same from 1922 to 1966; but the rule for returning to standard
159time changed in 1955. Got it?</p>
160
161<p>OK, now for the somewhat more interesting &ldquo;US&rdquo; rules:</p>
162
163<table>
164<tr>
165  <th colspan="6">From the Source File</th>
166</tr>
167<tr>
168  <td colspan="6">
169    <table class="rule">
170      <tr><td style="border:none;text-align:left">
171<pre class="td">
172#Rule NAME FROM TO    -   IN  ON        AT   SAVE LETTER/S
173Rule  US   1918 1919  -   Mar lastSun  2:00  1:00 D
174Rule  US   1918 1919  -   Oct lastSun  2:00  0    S
175Rule  US   1942 only  -   Feb 9        2:00  1:00 W # War
176Rule  US   1945 only  -   Aug 14      23:00u 1:00 P # Peace
177Rule  US   1945 only  -   Sep 30       2:00  0    S
178Rule  US   1967 2006  -   Oct lastSun  2:00  0    S
179Rule  US   1967 1973  -   Apr lastSun  2:00  1:00 D
180Rule  US   1974 only  -   Jan 6        2:00  1:00 D
181Rule  US   1975 only  -   Feb 23       2:00  1:00 D
182Rule  US   1976 1986  -   Apr lastSun  2:00  1:00 D
183Rule  US   1987 2006  -   Apr Sun&gt;=1   2:00  1:00 D
184Rule  US   2007 max   -   Mar Sun&gt;=8   2:00  1:00 D
185Rule  US   2007 max   -   Nov Sun&gt;=1   2:00  0    S
186</pre>
187  </td></tr></table></td>
188</tr>
189<tr>
190  <th colspan="6">Reformatted a Bit</th>
191</tr>
192<tr>
193  <th>From</th>
194  <th>To</th>
195  <th colspan="2">On</th>
196  <th>At</th>
197  <th>Action</th>
198</tr>
199<tr>
200  <td rowspan="2">1918</td>
201  <td rowspan="2">1919</td>
202  <td rowspan="2">last Sunday</td>
203  <td>in March</td>
204  <td rowspan="3">02:00 local</td>
205  <td>go to daylight saving time</td>
206</tr>
207<tr>
208  <td>in October</td>
209  <td>return to standard time</td>
210</tr>
211<tr>
212  <td colspan="2">1942 only</td>
213  <td colspan="2">February 9<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
214  <td>go to &ldquo;war time&rdquo;</td>
215</tr>
216<tr>
217  <td colspan="2" rowspan="2">1945 only</td>
218  <td colspan="2">August 14<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
219  <td>23:00 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time">UT</a></td>
220  <td>
221    rename &ldquo;war time&rdquo; to &ldquo;peace<br>time;&rdquo;
222    clocks don&rsquo;t change
223  </td>
224</tr>
225<tr>
226  <td colspan="2">September 30<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
227  <td rowspan="9">02:00 local</td>
228  <td rowspan="2">return to standard time</td>
229</tr>
230<tr>
231  <td rowspan="2">1967</td>
232  <td>2006</td>
233  <td rowspan="2">last Sunday</td>
234  <td>in October</td>
235</tr>
236<tr>
237  <td>1973</td>
238  <td>in April</td>
239  <td rowspan="6">go to daylight saving time</td>
240</tr>
241<tr>
242  <td colspan="2">1974 only</td>
243  <td colspan="2">January 6<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
244</tr>
245<tr>
246  <td colspan="2">1975 only</td>
247  <td colspan="2">February 23<small><sup>rd</sup></small></td>
248</tr>
249<tr>
250  <td>1976</td>
251  <td>1986</td>
252  <td>last Sunday</td>
253  <td rowspan="2">in April</td>
254</tr>
255<tr>
256  <td>1987</td>
257  <td>2006</td>
258  <td>first Sunday</td>
259</tr>
260<tr>
261  <td rowspan="2">2007</td>
262  <td rowspan="2">present</td>
263  <td colspan="2">second Sunday in March</td>
264</tr>
265<tr>
266  <td colspan="2">first Sunday in November</td>
267  <td>return to standard time</td>
268</tr>
269</table>
270
271<p>There are two interesting things to note here.</p>
272
273<p>First, the time that something happens (in the <code>AT</code>
274column) is not necessarily the local (wall clock) time. The time can be
275suffixed with &lsquo;s&rsquo; (for &ldquo;standard&rdquo;) to mean
276local standard time, different from local (wall clock) time when observing
277daylight saving time; or it can be suffixed with &lsquo;g&rsquo;,
278&lsquo;u&rsquo;, or &lsquo;z&rsquo;, all three of which mean the
279standard time at the
280<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Meridian">prime meridian</a>.
281&lsquo;g&rsquo; stands for &ldquo;<a
282href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Mean_Time">GMT</a>&rdquo;;
283&lsquo;u&rsquo; stands for &ldquo;<a
284href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time">UT</a>&rdquo; or &ldquo;<a
285href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time">UTC</a>&rdquo;
286(whichever was official at the time); &lsquo;z&rsquo; stands for the
287<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_time">nautical time zone</a>
288Z (a.k.a. &ldquo;Zulu&rdquo; which, in turn, stands for &lsquo;Z&rsquo;).
289The time can also be suffixed with &lsquo;w&rsquo; meaning local (wall
290clock) time; but it usually isn&rsquo;t because that&rsquo;s the
291default.</p>
292
293<p>Second, the day in the <code>ON</code> column, in addition to
294&ldquo;<code>lastSun</code>&rdquo; or a particular day of the month,
295can have the form, &ldquo;<code>Sun&gt;=</code><i>x</i>&rdquo; or
296&ldquo;<code>Sun&lt;=</code><i>x</i>,&rdquo; where <i>x</i> is a day
297of the month. For example, &ldquo;<code>Sun&gt;=8</code>&rdquo; means
298&ldquo;the first Sunday on or after the eighth of the month,&rdquo; in
299other words, the second Sunday of the month. Furthermore, although
300there are no examples above, the weekday needn&rsquo;t be
301&ldquo;<code>Sun</code>&rdquo; in either form, but can be the usual
302three-character English abbreviation for any day of the week.</p>
303
304<p>And the US rules give us more examples of a couple of things
305already mentioned:</p>
306
307<ul>
308<li>The rules for changing to and from daylight saving time are
309actually <i>different sets</i> of rules; and the two sets can change
310independently. Consider, for example, that the rule for the return to
311standard time stayed the same from 1967 to 2006; but the rule for the
312transition to daylight saving time changed several times in the same
313period.  There can also be periods, 1946 to 1966 for example, when no
314rule from this group is in effect, and so either no transition
315happened in those years, or some other rule is in effect (perhaps a
316state or other more local rule).</li>
317
318<li>The <code>SAVE</code> and <code>LETTER</code> columns
319contain <i>steady state</i>, not transitions. Consider, for example,
320the transition from &ldquo;war time&rdquo; to &ldquo;peace time&rdquo;
321that happened on August 14, 1945. The &ldquo;1:00&rdquo; in
322the <code>SAVE</code> column is <i>not</i> an instruction to advance
323the clock an hour. It means that clocks should <i>be</i> one hour
324ahead of standard time, which they already are because of the previous
325rule, so there should be no change.</li>
326
327</ul>
328
329<p>OK, now let&rsquo;s look at a Zone record:</p>
330
331<table>
332<tr>
333  <th colspan="5">From the Source File</th>
334</tr>
335<tr>
336  <td colspan="5">
337    <table class="rule">
338      <tr><td style="border:none;text-align:left">
339<pre class="td">
340#Zone       NAME      STDOFF   RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
341Zone  America/Chicago -5:50:36 -       LMT  1883 Nov 18 12:09:24
342                      -6:00    US      C%sT 1920
343                      -6:00    Chicago C%sT 1936 Mar  1  2:00
344                      -5:00    -       EST  1936 Nov 15  2:00
345                      -6:00    Chicago C%sT 1942
346                      -6:00    US      C%sT 1946
347                      -6:00    Chicago C%sT 1967
348                      -6:00    US      C%sT
349</pre>
350  </td></tr></table></td>
351</tr>
352<tr>
353  <th colspan="5">Columns Renamed</th>
354</tr>
355<tr>
356  <th rowspan="2">Standard Offset<br>
357    from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Meridian">Prime
358    Meridian</a></th>
359  <th rowspan="2">Daylight<br>Saving Time</th>
360  <th rowspan="2">Abbreviation(s)</th>
361  <th colspan="2">Ending at Local Time</th>
362</tr>
363<tr>
364  <th>Date</th>
365  <th>Time</th>
366</tr>
367<tr>
368  <td>&minus;5:50:36</td>
369  <td>not observed</td>
370  <td>LMT</td>
371  <td>1883-11-18</td>
372  <td>12:09:24</td>
373</tr>
374<tr>
375  <td rowspan="2">&minus;6:00:00</td>
376  <td>US rules</td>
377  <td rowspan="2">CST or CDT</td>
378  <td>1920-01-01</td>
379  <td>00:00:00</td>
380</tr>
381<tr>
382  <td>Chicago rules</td>
383  <td>1936-03-01</td>
384  <td rowspan="2">02:00:00</td>
385</tr>
386<tr>
387  <td>&minus;5:00:00</td>
388  <td>not observed</td>
389  <td>EST</td>
390  <td>1936-11-15</td>
391</tr>
392<tr>
393  <td rowspan="4">&minus;6:00:00</td>
394  <td>Chicago rules</td>
395  <td>CST or CDT</td>
396  <td>1942-01-01</td>
397  <td rowspan="3">00:00:00</td>
398</tr>
399<tr>
400  <td>US rules</td>
401  <td>CST, CWT or CPT</td>
402  <td>1946-01-01</td>
403</tr>
404<tr>
405  <td>Chicago rules</td>
406  <td rowspan="2">CST or CDT</td>
407  <td>1967-01-01</td>
408</tr>
409<tr>
410  <td>US rules</td>
411  <td colspan="2">&mdash;</td>
412</tr>
413</table>
414
415<p>There are a couple of interesting differences between Zones and Rules.</p>
416
417<p>First, and somewhat trivially, whereas Rules are considered to
418contain one or more records, a Zone is considered to be a single
419record with zero or more <i>continuation lines</i>. Thus, the keyword,
420&ldquo;<code>Zone</code>,&rdquo; and the zone name are not
421repeated. The last line is the one without anything in
422the <code>[UNTIL]</code> column.</p>
423
424<p>Second, and more fundamentally, each line of a Zone represents a
425steady state, not a transition between states. The state exists from
426the date and time in the previous line&rsquo;s <code>[UNTIL]</code>
427column up to the date and time in the current
428line&rsquo;s <code>[UNTIL]</code> column. In other words, the date and
429time in the <code>[UNTIL]</code> column is the instant that separates
430this state from the next. Where that would be ambiguous because
431we&rsquo;re setting our clocks back, the <code>[UNTIL]</code> column
432specifies the first occurrence of the instant. The state specified by
433the last line, the one without anything in the <code>[UNTIL]</code>
434column, continues to the present.</p>
435
436<p>The first line typically specifies the mean solar time observed
437before the introduction of standard time. Since there&rsquo;s no line before
438that, it has no beginning. <code>8-) </code> For some places near the <a
439href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Date_Line">International
440Date Line</a>, the first <i>two</i> lines will show solar times
441differing by 24 hours; this corresponds to a movement of the Date
442Line.  For example:</p>
443
444<pre>
445#Zone NAME          STDOFF   RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
446Zone America/Juneau 15:02:19 -     LMT    1867 Oct 18
447                    -8:57:41 -     LMT    ...
448</pre>
449
450<p>When Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867, the Date Line moved
451from the Alaska/Canada border to the Bering Strait; and the time in
452Alaska was then 24 hours earlier than it had
453been. <code>&lt;aside&gt;</code>(6 October in the Julian calendar,
454which Russia was still using then for religious reasons, was followed
455by <i>a second instance of the same day with a different name</i>, 18
456October in the Gregorian calendar. Isn&rsquo;t civil time
457wonderful? <code>8-)</code>)<code>&lt;/aside&gt;</code></p>
458
459<p>The abbreviation, &ldquo;LMT&rdquo; stands for &ldquo;local mean
460time&rdquo;, which is an invention of
461the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database">tz
462database</a> and was probably never actually used during the
463period. Furthermore, the value is almost certainly wrong except in the
464archetypal place after which the zone is named. (The tz database
465usually doesn&rsquo;t provide a separate Zone record for places where
466nothing significant happened after 1970.)</p>
467
468<p>The <code>RULES</code> column tells us whether daylight saving time is being observed:
469<ul>
470<li>A hyphen, a kind of null value, means that we have not set our
471clocks ahead of standard time.</li>
472
473<li>An amount of time (usually but not necessarily &ldquo;1:00&rdquo;
474meaning one hour) means that we have set our clocks ahead by that
475amount.</li>
476
477<li>Some alphabetic string means that we <i>might have</i> set our
478clocks ahead; and we need to check the rule the name of which is the
479given alphabetic string.</li>
480</ul>
481
482<p>An example of a specific amount of time is:</p>
483<pre>
484#Zone NAME            STDOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
485Zone Pacific/Honolulu ...                 1933 Apr 30  2:00
486                      -10:30 1:00  HDT    1933 May 21 12:00
487                      ...
488</pre>
489
490<p>Hawaii tried daylight saving time for three weeks in 1933 and
491decided they didn&rsquo;t like it. <code>8-) </code>Note that
492the <code>STDOFF</code> column always contains the standard time
493offset, so the local (wall clock) time during this period was GMT &minus;
49410:30 + 1:00 = GMT &minus; 9:30.</p>
495
496<p>The <code>FORMAT</code> column specifies the usual abbreviation of
497the time zone name. It should have one of four forms:</p>
498<ul>
499
500<li>a time zone abbreviation that is a string of three or more
501characters that are either ASCII alphanumerics,
502&ldquo;<code>+</code>&rdquo;, or &ldquo;<code>-</code>&rdquo;</li>
503
504<li>the string &ldquo;%z&rdquo;, in which case the
505&ldquo;<code>%z</code>&rdquo; will be replaced by a numeric time zone
506abbreviation</li>
507
508<li>a pair of time zone abbreviations separated by a slash
509(&lsquo;<code>/</code>&rsquo;), in which case the first string is the
510abbreviation for the standard time name and the second string is the
511abbreviation for the daylight saving time name</li>
512
513<li>a string containing &ldquo;<code>%s</code>&rdquo;, in which case
514the &ldquo;<code>%s</code>&rdquo; will be replaced by the text in the
515appropriate Rule&rsquo;s <code>LETTER</code> column, and the resulting
516string should be a time zone abbreviation</li>
517</ul>
518
519<p>The last two make sense only if there&rsquo;s a named rule in effect.</p>
520
521<p>An example of a slash is:</p>
522<pre>
523#Zone NAME          STDOFF RULES FORMAT  [UNTIL]
524Zone  Europe/London ...                  1996
525                    0:00   EU    GMT/BST
526</pre>
527
528<p>The current time in the UK is called either Greenwich mean time or
529British summer time.</p>
530
531<p>One wrinkle, not fully explained in <code>zic.8.txt</code>, is what
532happens when switching to a named rule. To what values should
533the <code>SAVE</code> and <code>LETTER</code> data be initialized?</p>
534
535<ul>
536<li>If at least one transition has happened, use
537the <code>SAVE</code> and <code>LETTER</code> data from the most
538recent.</li>
539
540<li>If switching to a named rule before any transition has happened,
541assume standard time (<code>SAVE</code> zero), and use
542the <code>LETTER</code> data from the earliest transition with
543a <code>SAVE</code> of zero.
544
545</ul>
546
547<p>And three last things about the <code>FORMAT</code> column:</p>
548<ul>
549
550<li>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database">tz
551database</a> gives abbreviations for time zones in <i>popular
552usage</i>, which is not necessarily &ldquo;correct&rdquo; by law. For
553example, the last line in
554<code>Zone</code> <code>Pacific/Honolulu</code> (shown below) gives
555&ldquo;HST&rdquo; for &ldquo;Hawaii standard time&rdquo; even though the
556<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/263">legal</a>
557name for that time zone is &ldquo;Hawaii-Aleutian standard time.&rdquo;
558This author has read that there are also some places in Australia where
559popular time zone names differ from the legal ones.
560
561<li>No attempt is made to <a
562href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization">localize</a>
563the abbreviations. They are intended to be the values returned through the
564<code>"%Z"</code> format specifier to
565<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)">C</a>&rsquo;s
566<a href="https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/strftime.html"><code>strftime</code></a>
567function in the
568<a href="https://kirste.userpage.fu-berlin.de/chemnet/use/info/libc/libc_19.html#SEC324">&ldquo;C&rdquo; locale</a>.
569
570<li>If there is no generally-accepted abbreviation for a time zone,
571a numeric offset is used instead, e.g., <code>+07</code> for 7 hours
572ahead of Greenwich. By convention, <code>-00</code> is used in a
573zone while uninhabited, where the offset is zero but in some sense
574the true offset is undefined.
575</ul>
576
577<p>As a final example, here&rsquo;s the complete history for Hawaii:</p>
578
579<table>
580<tr>
581  <th colspan="6">Relevant Excerpts from the US Rules</th>
582</tr>
583<tr>
584  <td colspan="6">
585    <table class="rule">
586      <tr><td style="border:none;text-align:left">
587<pre class="td">
588#Rule NAME FROM TO   -    IN  ON      AT     SAVE LETTER/S
589Rule  US   1918 1919 -    Oct lastSun  2:00  0    S
590Rule  US   1942 only -    Feb  9       2:00  1:00 W # War
591Rule  US   1945 only -    Aug 14      23:00u 1:00 P # Peace
592Rule  US   1945 only -    Sep lastSun  2:00  0    S
593</pre>
594  </td></tr></table></td>
595</tr>
596<tr>
597  <th colspan="6">The Zone Record</th>
598</tr>
599<tr>
600  <td colspan="6">
601    <table class="rule">
602      <tr><td style="border:none;text-align:left">
603<pre class="td">
604#Zone NAME            STDOFF    RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
605Zone Pacific/Honolulu -10:31:26 -     LMT    1896 Jan 13 12:00
606                      -10:30    -     HST    1933 Apr 30  2:00
607                      -10:30    1:00  HDT    1933 May 21  2:00
608                      -10:30    US    H%sT   1947 Jun  8  2:00
609                      -10:00    -     HST
610</pre>
611  </td></tr></table></td>
612</tr>
613<tr>
614  <th colspan="6">What We Infer</th>
615</tr>
616<tr>
617  <th rowspan="2">Wall-Clock<br>Offset from<br>Prime Meridian</th>
618  <th rowspan="2">Adjust<br>Clocks</th>
619  <th colspan="2">Time Zone</th>
620  <th colspan="2">Ending at Local Time</th>
621</tr>
622<tr>
623  <th>Abbrv.</th>
624  <th>Name</th>
625  <th>Date</th>
626  <th>Time</th>
627</tr>
628<tr>
629  <td>&minus;10:31:26</td>
630  <td>&mdash;</td>
631  <td>LMT</td>
632  <td>local mean time</td>
633  <td>1896-01-13</td>
634  <td>12:00</td>
635</tr>
636<tr>
637  <td>&minus;10:30</td>
638  <td>+0:01:26</td>
639  <td>HST</td>
640  <td>Hawaii standard time</td>
641  <td>1933-04-30</td>
642  <td>02:00</td>
643</tr>
644<tr>
645  <td>&minus;9:30</td>
646  <td>+1:00</td>
647  <td>HDT</td>
648  <td>Hawaii daylight time</td>
649  <td>1933-05-21</td>
650  <td>12:00</td>
651</tr>
652<tr>
653  <td>&minus;10:30&sup1;</td>
654  <td>&minus;1:00&sup1;</td>
655  <td>HST&sup1;</td>
656  <td>Hawaii standard time</td>
657  <td>1942-02-09</td>
658  <td>02:00</td>
659</tr>
660<tr>
661  <td rowspan="2">&minus;9:30</td>
662  <td>+1:00</td>
663  <td>HWT</td>
664  <td>Hawaii war time</td>
665  <td>1945-08-14</td>
666  <td>13:30&sup2;</td>
667</tr>
668<tr>
669  <td>0</td>
670  <td>HPT</td>
671  <td>Hawaii peace time</td>
672  <td>1945-09-30</td>
673  <td rowspan="2">02:00</td>
674</tr>
675<tr>
676  <td>&minus;10:30</td>
677  <td>&minus;1:00</td>
678  <td rowspan="2">HST</td>
679  <td rowspan="2">Hawaii standard time</td>
680  <td>1947-06-08</td>
681</tr>
682<tr>
683  <td>&minus;10:00&sup3;</td>
684  <td>+0:30&sup3;</td>
685  <td colspan="2">&mdash;</td>
686</tr>
687<tr>
688  <td colspan="6" class="footnote">
689    &sup1;Switching to US rules&hellip;most recent transition (in 1919) was to standard time
690  </td>
691</tr>
692<tr>
693  <td colspan="6" class="footnote">
694    &sup2;23:00 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time">UT</a>
695    + (&minus;9:30) = 13:30 local
696  </td>
697</tr>
698<tr>
699  <td colspan="6" class="footnote">
700    &sup3;Since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601">1947&ndash;06&ndash;08T12:30Z</a>,
701    the civil time in Hawaii has been
702    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time">UT</a>/<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time">UTC</a>
703    &minus; 10:00 year-round.
704  </td>
705</tr>
706</table>
707
708<p>There will be a short quiz later. <code>8-)</code></p>
709
710<hr>
711<address>
712This web page is in the public domain, so clarified as of
7132015-10-20 by Bill Seymour.
714<br>
715All suggestions and corrections will be welcome; all flames will be amusing.
716Mail to was at pobox dot com.
717</address>
718</body>
719</html>
720