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Generating a drop down list of timezones with PHP

Asked 2009-11-13T04:07:28.177
150

Most sites need some way to show the dates on the site in the users preferred timezone. Below are two lists that I found and then one method using the built in PHP DateTime class in PHP 5.

I need help knowing which of these would be the best to attempt to use when trying to get the UTC offset from the user on register.

One:

<option value="-12">[UTC - 12] Baker Island Time</option>
<option value="-11">[UTC - 11] Niue Time, Samoa Standard Time</option>
<option value="-10">[UTC - 10] Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time, Cook Island Time</option>
<option value="-9.5">[UTC - 9:30] Marquesas Islands Time</option>
<option value="-9">[UTC - 9] Alaska Standard Time, Gambier Island Time</option>
<option value="-8">[UTC - 8] Pacific Standard Time</option>
<option value="-7">[UTC - 7] Mountain Standard Time</option>
<option value="-6">[UTC - 6] Central Standard Time</option>
<option value="-5">[UTC - 5] Eastern Standard Time</option>
<option value="-4.5">[UTC - 4:30] Venezuelan Standard Time</option>
<option value="-4">[UTC - 4] Atlantic Standard Time</option>
<option value="-3.5">[UTC - 3:30] Newfoundland Standard Time</option>
<option value="-3">[UTC - 3] Amazon Standard Time, Central Greenland Time</option>
<option value="-2">[UTC - 2] Fernando de Noronha Time, South Georgia &amp; the South Sandwich Islands Time</option>
<option value="-1">[UTC - 1] Azores Standard Time, Cape Verde Time, Eastern Greenland Time</option>
<option value="0" selected="selected">[UTC] Western European Time, Greenwic
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1 Answer

24

I would do it with the following code which is similar to the accepted answer (I'm aware the code could be refactored :) ):

    $list = DateTimeZone::listAbbreviations();
    $idents = DateTimeZone::listIdentifiers();

    $data = $offset = $added = array();
    foreach ($list as $abbr => $info) {
        foreach ($info as $zone) {
            if ( ! empty($zone['timezone_id'])
                AND
                ! in_array($zone['timezone_id'], $added)
                AND 
                  in_array($zone['timezone_id'], $idents)) {
                $z = new DateTimeZone($zone['timezone_id']);
                $c = new DateTime(null, $z);
                $zone['time'] = $c->format('H:i a');
                $offset[] = $zone['offset'] = $z->getOffset($c);
                $data[] = $zone;
                $added[] = $zone['timezone_id'];
            }
        }
    }

    array_multisort($offset, SORT_ASC, $data);
    $options = array();
    foreach ($data as $key => $row) {
        $options[$row['timezone_id']] = $row['time'] . ' - '
                                        . formatOffset($row['offset']) 
                                        . ' ' . $row['timezone_id'];
    }

    // now you can use $options;

function formatOffset($offset) {
        $hours = $offset / 3600;
        $remainder = $offset % 3600;
        $sign = $hours > 0 ? '+' : '-';
        $hour = (int) abs($hours);
        $minutes = (int) abs($remainder / 60);

        if ($hour == 0 AND $minutes == 0) {
            $sign = ' ';
        }
        return 'GMT' . $sign . str_pad($hour, 2, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT) 
                .':'. str_pad($minutes,2, '0');

}

It produces something like:

<option value="America/Boise" label="02:10 am - GMT-06:00 America/Boise">02:10 am - GMT-06:00 America/Boise</option>

<option value="America/Denver" label="02:10 am - GMT-06:00 America/Denver">02:10 am - GMT-06:00 America/Denver<
answered 2010-05-15T08:12:28.380

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