local() Function

Function

local( datetime, timezone )

This is a Date and Time addition function, adding time zone offset to given Date and Time.

Parameters

Returns

Date and Time

Usage considerations

This function does not store the time zone offset with the returned value.

The datetime parameter accepts Date variables, Date and Time variables, and process properties such as pp!starttime.

The timezone parameter accepts four formats of input:

• Time zone IDs, such as America/Denver.
• Time zone acronyms, such as MST.
• Hours and minutes offset from a GMT date and time, such as GMT-06:00.
• Minutes offset, such as -30.

Time zone IDs, time zone acronyms, and GMT offsets must be enclosed in quotation marks (""). If a timezone is not passed, the time zone of the current context is used.

Passing a time zone ID (such as "Asia/Tokyo") causes the result to be adjusted for daylight saving time. Passing a time zone acronym (such as "GMT") does not cause the result to be adjusted for daylight saving time.

Examples

Use a specific offset

Offset using a time zone ID

1
local(datetime(2022, 11, 11, 2, 30), "Europe/Helsinki")

Returns 11/11/2022 4:30 AM GMT+00:00. A +2 hour offset was added to the time, but the timezone was not changed from GMT.

Offset using a GMT offset

1
local(datetime(2022, 11, 11, 2, 30), "GMT+02:00")

Returns 11/11/2022 4:30 AM GMT+00:00.

Offset using minutes

1
local(datetime(2022, 11, 11, 2, 30), "120")

Returns 11/11/2022 4:30 AM GMT+00:00.

Offset using the current context

1
local(datetime(2022, 11, 11, 2, 30))

Returns 11/11/2022 10:30 AM GMT+04:00 provided that the timezone of the current context is GMT+4. The GMT time of 2:30 AM is offset by +4 hours, causing the function to return Nov 11, 6:30 AM GMT. This GMT time is then displayed to the user as 10:30 AM GMT+4 in the current context.

Use local() to get the current context for date time functions

1
todate(local(now()))

If the current datetime is 11/10/2022 10:30 PM GMT-04:00 in the context of GMT-4, the expression above returns 11/10/2022. Compare this to an expression without the local function below.

1
todate(now())

Returns 11/11/2022 because todate acts on the datetime in GMT, which is 11/11/2022 2:30 AM. It does not act on the local datetime of 11/10/2022 10:30 PM in GMT-4.

Feature compatibility

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