Timezone for datetime.date objects

[Morten W. Petersen]

Hi Chris, Cameron.

Well, let's say I specify the datetime 2022-02-22 02:02 (AM). I think
everyone could agree that it also means 2022-02-22 02:02:00:00, to
2022-02-22 02:02:59:59.

And I think the same applies for a date. If the pipes are clogged and I
can't take (give) a shit, a shower or do anything else involving fluids, I
can just leave the keys under the doormat, and agree a date with the
plumber, and go off to a friend of relatives' place for a couple of days
while waiting for the plumber to do the necessary work.

Usually that would imply that the plumber visits from 07:00 to 15:00 on the
given date, with an implicit timezone. It could also mean that the plumber
shows up at 01:00 at night and fixes it, or at 18:00 in the evening.

If a newspaper talks about new years celebrations, and specifically talks
about what happens on the 1st of January, this could mean at 00:01, or a
later dinner party at 20:00. But the celebration that starts at midnight,
doesn't start at the same moment all over the world.  So context, or
location and implicit timezone does matter.

I was also thinking of specifying some range objects for my needs, as that
makes sense from what I've worked with earlier, this makes sense for
example for a month or a year (or even decade) as well.

But the point is that a date is not just a flat, one-dimensional object.

Regards,

Morten

On Sun, Feb 27, 2022 at 11:11 PM Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 28 Feb 2022 at 08:51, Cameron Simpson <cs at cskk.id.au> wrote:
> >
> > On 27Feb2022 11:16, Morten W. Petersen <morphex at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >I was initially using the date object to get the right timespan, but
> > >then
> > >found that using the right timezone with that was a bit of a pain.  So I
> > >went for the datetime object instead, specifying 0 on hour, minute and
> > >second.
> > >
> > >What's the thinking behind this with the date object?  Wouldn't it be
> nice
> > >to be able to specify a timezone?
> >
> > This has come up before. My own opinion is that no, it would be a bad
> > idea. You're giving subday resolution to an object which is inherently
> > "days". Leaving aside the many complications it brings (compare two
> > dates, now requiring timezone context?) you've already hit on the easy
> > and simple solution: datetimes.
> >
> > I'd even go so far as to suggest that if you needed a timezone for
> > precision, then dates are the _wrong_ precision to work in.
> >
>
> I would agree. If you have timestamps and you're trying to determine
> whether they're within a certain range, and timezones matter, then
> your range is not days; it begins at a specific point in time and ends
> at a specific point in time. Is that point midnight? 2AM? Start/close
> of business? It could be anything, and I don't see a problem with
> requiring that it be specified.
>
> ChrisA
> --
> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>


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