How can I get the time zone of a US ZIP code?

Question

There does not seem to be a direct way to extract the time zone for a ZIP code. Currently, I am first mapping the ZIP code to the states, and then getting the time zones for those states.

"94402" //
Entity["ZIPCode", #] & //
EntityValue[#, "USStates"] & //
Map[EntityValue[#, "TimeZones"] &]

But this is obviously wrong. This will return multiple time zones even when a given ZIP code lies within a single time zone.

Is there a better way of getting the time zone for a ZIP code through Entity?

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 11 '19 at 00:43

11

TimeZoneOffset[Entity["ZIPCode", "94402"]]

-8.

answered Jan 11 '19 at 00:43

kglr

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Ah, didn't occur to me that I don't need to wrap the entity in GeoPosition. Ah well. Graceful method :) – Carl Lange Jan 11 '19 at 00:44
Thank you @CarlLange. – kglr Jan 11 '19 at 01:23

Carl Lange · Answer 2 · 2019-01-11T00:47:56.960

6

This will do what you want:

TimeZoneOffset[GeoPosition[Entity["ZIPCode", "94402"]["Coordinates"]]]

-8

Each zip code entity has coordinates associated with them, and TimeZoneOffset can take a GeoPosition and return the timezone offset from GMT.

It should be noted that kglr's answer is the shorter (and more graceful) form of this answer - they are doing the same thing under the hood.

edited Jan 11 '19 at 00:47

answered Jan 11 '19 at 00:37

Carl Lange

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How can I get the time zone of a US ZIP code?

2 Answers2