tidszonnamn

Tidszonnamn is a Swedish term used to refer to the label that identifies a time zone in computing and data contexts. Most commonly, it refers to the IANA time zone database identifier, a region-based name such as Europe/Stockholm or America/New_York that encodes the standard time and daylight saving rules used in that region. Some systems also store a human-friendly display name that is localized for the user’s language. The tidszonnamn is used by software to convert timestamps between zones, schedule events, and present local times to users.

Time zone identification relies on canonical identifiers from the IANA tz database, which is maintained and updated to reflect political or legislative changes affecting timekeeping. In practice, a single geographic region may have multiple historical identifiers, and some areas have had shifting or ambiguous rules; therefore, software often stores both the tidszonnamn and the exact transition rules or an offset history to interpret timestamps correctly.

Users typically see a localized display name, while internal processing uses the canonical identifier. Examples include Europe/Stockholm, which uses CET in winter and CEST in summer, and America/Los_Angeles, which uses PST and PDT. It is important to distinguish a tidszonnamn from a fixed UTC offset; the same offset can occur in multiple zones at different times, and daylight saving rules may change over time.

See also time zone, UTC, daylight saving time, IANA time zone database.