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Message:

DST Handling in java.util.Date

Posted by Karan Vahi on June 12, 2001 at 9:58 AM

Dear All

I am facing a problem with the way Java handles DST in Date objects.
Suppose we have 2 timezones with same GMT offset; one which has an option
of DST e.g Central Time(U.S and Canada)GMT -6:00 and other which doesn't follow DST Mexico City GMT -6:00.
If I run my sytem on MexicoCity Timezone and make a simple proram which just displays the current Date using java.util.Date class, I get the time and offset in that string
according to DST e.g I get Date displayed as Tue Jun 12 07:50:55 GMT-05:00 2001 even though the time on my system was 06:50:55 with timezone as Mexico City. So the date displayed should have been Tue Jun 12 06:50:55 GMT-06:00 2001 instead of Tue Jun 12 07:50:55 GMT-05:00 2001
I am working on Windows NT.
Please suggest a way for a correct display of dates.

The java program I ran was

import java.util.*;

public class Untitled1 {

public Untitled1() {
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println(new Date());
}

}

Thanking You
Karan Vahi