Getting User-Friendly Time Zone Names in Python

Totally get where you’re coming from! Working with time zones in Python can be a bit of a headache. But don’t worry, there are definitely ways to get those friendly names without pulling your hair out.

Using the `pytz` Library

Even though you feel `pytz` isn’t super friendly, you can actually use its time zone objects to get proper names. Here’s a quick snippet:

import pytz

# Example: Getting the friendly name for a timezone
def get_friendly_timezones():
    timezones = pytz.all_timezones
    friendly_names = {}
    for tz in timezones:
        friendly_names[tz] = tz.replace('_', ' ')  # Replace underscores with spaces for better readability
    return friendly_names

print(get_friendly_timezones())
    

This code gives you a dictionary of time zone names, all cleaned up. You can modify it further to make it even friendlier.

Trying Out `dateutil`

The `dateutil` library handles time zones too, but it doesn’t give direct user-friendly names. You might still want to use it for other date/time functionality.

Exploring `zoneinfo` (Python 3.9+)

If you’re on Python 3.9 or later, `zoneinfo` is pretty neat! You can get the zone names like this:

from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo

# Example: Getting the friendly name using ZoneInfo
def get_zoneinfo_friendly_name(zone):
    return ZoneInfo(zone).key.replace('_', ' ').title()

print(get_zoneinfo_friendly_name('America/Los_Angeles'))  # Outputs: 'America/Los Angeles'
    

Although it’s still a bit technical, you can mess with the output to make it look nicer. Maybe create a mapping from standard names to user-friendly names yourself!

Custom Friendly Time Zones

Another idea is making your own dictionary that links technical names to user-friendly names. Like if someone selects “America/New_York,” you can display “Eastern Time” instead:

friendly_timezones = {
    "America/New_York": "Eastern Time",
    "America/Los_Angeles": "Pacific Time"
    # Add more mappings as needed
}

def get_custom_friendly_name(zone):
    return friendly_timezones.get(zone, zone)  # Return the friendly name or the zone itself if not found

print(get_custom_friendly_name('America/New_York'))  # Outputs: 'Eastern Time'
    

This way, you truly have control over what your users see, and you can add as many as you like!

Hope that helps a bit! It’s absolutely worth getting those time zones sorted out for your users. Happy coding!