Read a city and/or state text field and return a timezone?

[Haig_Hovsepian]

Hi there,

I am wondering if it is possible to use an AirTable formula field to take a list of city/state names:

… and turn it into a new field representing the timezone that city/state is in.

Or would perhaps my best solution be an IF(OR(FIND formula with a list of city/state names and timezones?

Any help is appreciated!

[Justin_Barrett]

Welcome to the community, @Haig_Hovsepian! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes: If the list of possible incoming options is small, a simple formula might work, but “simple” may still be long depending on the number of options. If you need to decode any region in the U.S., though, the formula would be huge, and might even surpass the formula length threshold (I saw a post recently implying that another user might have run into this issue, though I’m not certain).

A more viable solution would probably be to tap into an API, which would be done through a script. That script could either run manually in a Scripting app, or automatically using an automation, though the latter option will require your base to be in a Pro-plan workspace or higher. Finding such an API will also take some digging, as most timezone-related APIs that I found via a quick search don’t do region-to-timezone conversion. If you happen to have geo coordinates in addition to a written description of the region, you’ll have better luck finding an API.