Function to parse gs.getSession().getTimeZone();

[G24]

Hello.  Does someone have a function to parse the ZoneInfo array (?) or whatever it is that is returned from:

var userTimeZone = gs.getSession().getTimeZone();

The output from that looks like this:

sun.util.calendar.ZoneInfo[id="US/Eastern",offset=-18000000,dstSavings=3600000,useDaylight=true,transitions=235,lastRule=java.util.SimpleTimeZone[id=US/Eastern,offset=-18000000,dstSavings=3600000,useDaylight=true,startYear=0,startMode=3,startMonth=2,startDay=8,startDayOfWeek=1,startTime=7200000,startTimeMode=0,endMode=3,endMonth=10,endDay=1,endDayOfWeek=1,endTime=7200000,endTimeMode=0]]

I care about the id, "US/Eastern" in this example...

and the "offset", -18000000 in this example.

*** OR ***

Is there a better way to get the name/id and the offset?

I know that I can get the name with a different function:

var userTimeZoneName = session.getTimeZoneName();

But I don't know the best way to get the offset.  Thanks.

[Daniel Savard]

Here is a much more elegant solution to the problem I had to solve myself. The idea is to create a JSON associative array from the string so you can access all the values by key.

var timestamp = "2007-11-08 10:48:38";                             // a give timestamp string
var gDT = new GlideDateTime(timestamp);                           // create a GlideDateTime object
var tz = gDT.getUserTimeZone();                                            // same as gs.getSession().getTimeZone()

tz = String(tz);                                                                           // cast as a string

// Create an array with the list of regular expressions for substitution
var expReg = [
  "sun.util.calendar.ZoneInfo",        // Match the literal string.
  "java.util.SimpleTimeZone",          // Match the literal string.
  "(\\w+) *=",                                    // This will put the value of the key in the group 1.
  ": *([\\w@\\.\\/]+)",                     // This will put the value in the group 1.
  "\\\"(-*\\d+)\\\"",                         // This will match an integer and return it into the group 1.
  "\\[",                                               // Match the opening square bracket.
  "\\]",                                              // Match the closing square bracket.
  "\\\"true\\\"",                               // Match true with double quotes on each side.
  "\\\"false\\\""                               // Match false with double quotes on each side.
];

// Create an array with the replacing value
var resultat = [
  "",                 // Remove the matched value.
  "",                 // Remove the matched value.
  "\"$1\":",     // Insert the group 1 value surrounded by double quotes and add the suffix : (this actually replace the = by :).
  ":\"$1\"",     // Insert the group 1 value matched and prefix with :.
  "$1",            // Insert the group 1 value matched.
  "{",                // Insert an opening curly brace.
  "}",                // Insert a closing curly brace.
  "true",          // Insert the value true without any quotes.
  "false"          // Insert the value false without any quotes.
];

// Loop for each value in the regular expressions array (expReg).
for ( i=0; i<expReg.length; i++ ) {
  // Replace using the compiled regular expression globally ('g') with the equivalent result from the resultat array
  tz = tz.replace(new RegExp(expReg[i], 'g'), resultat[i]);
}
    
// Parse and transform the string into a JSON structure
tz = JSON.parse(tz);
    
// Access the values by key
gs.info("\nTimezone name: " + tz.id + "\nOffset of the timezone in hours: " + tz.offset / 3600000 + "\nCheck if using daylight savings time: " + tz.useDaylight);

[Jim Coyne]

Isn't...

var tzOffsetMilliseconds = new GlideDateTime().getTZOffset();
var tzOffsetSeconds = (new GlideDateTime().getTZOffset()) / 1000;
var tzOffsetMinutes = (new GlideDateTime().getTZOffset()) / 1000 / 60;
var tzOffsetHours = (new GlideDateTime().getTZOffset()) / 1000 / 60 / 60;

... the easiest and most accurate way of doing it???

I replied here with that over 2 years ago and people keep coming up with ways to decipher/parse the results of "getUserTimeZone()" for some reason.  🤔