Do you have Time for a Date? Understanding Time Zone Offsets in Timestamps<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a Data Engineer or a Data Analyst you are working with dates and times constantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you ever wondered what those pesky four numbers at the end of a datetime value mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wonder no more! Because I will tell you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take a look at the following timestamp: 2025-05-03 23:06:06.164 -0700<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Notice there is a -0700 at the end of the timestamp. This tells you what time zone this timestamp \u201coriginates\u201d from (the \u201clocal\u201d time).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this case, it is 7 hours in westward direction from UTC. With other words, the local time is 7 hours behind UTC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To get UTC, add 7 hours to the local time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The picture below gives a graphical representation of the explanation above. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for why AWS_US_EAST_2 is located in the middle\/west of the US instead of the actual east of the US? There is probably a perfectly reasonable explanation available that I do not know \ud83d\ude01<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you have Time for a Date? Understanding Time Zone Offsets in Timestamps As a Data Engineer or a Data Analyst you are working with dates and times constantly. Have you ever wondered what those pesky four numbers at the end of a datetime value mean? Wonder no more! Because I will tell you. Take…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/datadandies.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250504-Time-and-date-offset-UTC-932x1024.png\")
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