Setting current time in different timezones

[Brett_Rakestraw]

I’ve reviewed some posts, but I might just not understand how to do this.

I have multiple freelancers that live in different time zones around the world. Each freelancer has a record into my document with their contact info and their timezone. I want to set up a column that spits out their current time wherever they are. So in essence, something like this.

Bob Smith / London, UK / 4:00 PM
John James / New York, NY / 11:00 AM

I can input their Time Zone or their UTC time when I add them to the table. I just want to convert that information into an actual clock time, so I can know what time it is there without having to do the additional math.

Does anyone have a good tip for this?

[Elias_Gomez_Sai]

I think you could add a Time difference in hours, and then just do DATEADD(NOW() + {Time difference}, 'hours').

[Elias_Gomez_Sai]

It works:

Even you could have a Time Zones table with the number, and link them to the Freelancers, so you have not to repeat the Time Diffs if you have so much collaborators.

[Andy_Lin1]

@Elias_Gomez_Sainz Haha, I wish it were that simple; in certain places (such as Canada, where I am) they observe Daylight Saving Time, which will throw off the calculation.

@Brett_Rakestraw
If you just want the current time converted into your freelancers’ respective time zones, you can use this formula:
DATETIME_FORMAT( SET_TIMEZONE(NOW(),{Time Zone}) ,'LT')
Note that there isn’t a function to look up a city’s time zone, so you’ll have to enter that manually. The formula above assumes a field labeled “Time Zone”, and you should enter the proper time zone according to the list below (e.g. Europe/London and America/New_York😞

Airtable Support

Supported timezones for SET_TIMEZONE

The SET_TIMEZONE function will allow you to set the timezone for the data from a date type field. This is written in the form "SET_TIMEZONE(datetime, 'timezone identifier')," in which the format sp...

Note: the 'LT' format specifier only gives the 12-hour time, but won’t tell you if someone is a day ahead/behind. To include the date, you may wish to use 'lll' or 'llll' instead.

Airtable Support

Supported format specifiers for DATETIME_FORMAT

The DATETIME_FORMAT function will allow you to reformat the data from the date-type field into a string of your specifications. This is written in the format of DATETIME_FORMAT(Datetime, 'format sp...

If you want to extend the time zone conversion to other fields (e.g. embargos/deadlines/event start times), you may want to check out the following thread:

SET_TIMEZONE and other time-related quirks Dates and timezones

I recently had to build a table to manage a number of events that happen outside of my time zone, and I thought I’d share what I’d learned in case someone else needs to do the same. Now, Airtable offers quite a few functions and features to handle timestamps: Today I’m mainly going to focus on SET_TIMEZONE. How SET_TIMEZONE behaves Here’s a sample table I’m going to draw examples from: {Given Time} corresponds to [date] below {Time Zone} corresponds to [tz_identifier] below SET_TIMEZO…

[Brett_Rakestraw]

This worked perfect. Thanks!

I also used this post to set up a Time Zone single select, so I don’t have to look up the time zones individually each time.

Time Zone of Team Ask the community

Try this: Go to this page. Mark and copy the list of timezone identifiers. Create a new single-line text field (or a new table and, within it, a single-line text field) in your base; call it {TZ}. (If you’re still in the process of creating your base, it’s easiest simply to define a new field in the table where your single select field will eventually belong. If you’re working on an existing base, it’s easiest to create the single select inside a new table and afterwards use this techni…