👨🍳 Time Handling Cookbook
Practical recipes for common time handling scenarios. Copy, paste, and adapt these patterns to avoid time-related bugs.
📚 Recipes
💾 Storage & Retrieval
🎯 Store UTC, Display Local
The golden rule: always store timestamps in UTC, convert to local time only for display.
❌ Common Mistakes
- • Storing local time without timezone information
- • Using naive datetime objects
- • Hardcoding timezone offsets instead of using timezone names
- • Converting to local time before storage
🗄️ Database Timezone Best Practices
Configure your database correctly to handle timezones and avoid data corruption.
🔄 Timezone Conversion
🌍 Safe Timezone Conversion
Convert between timezones safely, handling DST transitions and edge cases.
🕐 Handling DST Transitions
Special handling for ambiguous and non-existent times during DST transitions.
📝 Parsing & Formatting
🔍 Robust Date Parsing
Parse various date formats safely with proper error handling and validation.
➕ Date Arithmetic
🧮 Safe Date Arithmetic
Perform date calculations safely, accounting for DST, leap years, and month boundaries.
✅ Validation
🛡️ Input Validation
Validate date inputs thoroughly to prevent invalid data from entering your system.
🧪 Testing
🔬 Testing Time Logic
Write comprehensive tests for time-related functionality, including edge cases.