parse abbreviated, sloppy, and informal timezone names

npm install timezone-soft
(formerly called 'spacetime-informal')

js
import soft from 'timezone-soft'
// get an IANA tz from user input
let timezones = soft('milwaukee')[0]
/*[{
iana: 'America/Chicago',
standard: { name: 'Central Standard Time', abbrev: 'CST' },
daylight: { name: 'Central Daylight Time', abbrev: 'CDT' }
}
]*/





js
const soft = require('timezone-soft')
soft('EST')
// 'America/New_York'
soft('central')
// 'America/Chicago'
soft('venezuela')
// 'America/Caracas'
soft('south east asia')
// 'Asia/Bangkok'
Typescript/Deno/Webpack:
js
import soft from 'timezone-soft'
it was built to be as forgiving as possible, and return the most common-sense IANA timezone id from user-input.

DST
Often, the proper timezone name will depend on which date you are referencing. You can reckon this pretty-easily with spacetime, like this:
const spacetime = require('spacetime')
const soft = require('timezone-soft')
let display = soft('montreal')[0]
let show = display.standard.abbrev
// are we in standard time, or daylight time?
let s = spacetime.now(display.iana)
if (display.daylight && s.isDST()) {
show = display.daylight.abbrev
}
console.log(s.time() + ' ' + show)
// '4:20pm EDT'
work-in-progress!
See also
- TimeZoneNames .NET Standard Library by Matt Johnson-Pint
MIT