TIMEZONE

The SET TIMEZONE command changes the TIMEZONE run-time parameter for the current session.

Syntax

SET TIMEZONE TO { value | 'value' }

Semantics

where value is one of the following:

• one of the time zone names specified in the tz database, as described in the Sources for Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time Data page. (The Time Zone Names for Setting TIMEZONE listed in the next section are for convenience only and may be out of date.)
• a signed integer representing an offset from UTC in hours

  UTC is an abbreviation of Coordinated Universal Time (in English), the high-precision atomic time standard that replaced Greenwich Mean Time on 1 January 1972 as the basis for the main reference time scale or civil time in various regions. UTC is also referred to by the military and civil aviation as Zulu time (Z).

• an interval value
• the built-in constants LOCAL and DEFAULT, which set the time zone to the one specified in the TZ environment variable or, if TZ is undefined, from the operating system time zone. See Set the Default Time Zone in the Installation Guide)

Notes

• When using a Country/City name, do not omit the country or the city. For example:

  SET TIMEZONE TO 'Africa/Cairo'; -- valid

  SET TIMEZONE TO 'Cairo'; -- invalid

• Make sure to include the required keyword TO.
• Positive integer values represent an offset east from UTC.
• The SHOW command displays the run-time parameters.

Examples

SET TIMEZONE TO DEFAULT;

SET TIMEZONE TO 'PST8PDT'; -- Berkeley, California

SET TIMEZONE TO 'Europe/Rome'; -- Italy

SET TIMEZONE TO '-7'; -- UDT offset equivalent to PDT

SET TIMEZONE TO INTERVAL '-08:00 HOURS';