State or area code to time zone

[sgoing]

Hi,

Anyone know of a place to find a State to Time Zone or area code to time zone database/table. I'm looking to find the time zone for a known state or area code in the US.

Thanks for getting me to the right topic area.

[comment]

Try

http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/na/

I don't think it's strictly by state.

[sgoing]

Thanks. Not quite what I was looking for.

[MoonShadow]

Here is another link which might help FM Forums post - Time Zones

[sgoing]

Thanks. I'd seen that earlier. It might help if I create my own db file for the conversion.

[SteveB]

You can get a free zip code to city and state database that also has time zones at ]http://www.dirfile.com/freeware/free-database.htm

Its down toward the bottom of the web page. The file is available in CSV format, which makes it an easy conversion into FM

Steve

[Lee Smith]

Hi Steve,

Your URL has a period at the end that will mess up the link. If they remove it, it brings up a page of different ones, which title were your pointing at, as I'm just not seeing the free one in CSV format you were referring to.

TIA

Lee

[SteveB]

Sorry Lee. Here is the correct site: http://civicspacelabs.org/home/zipcodedb

The datafile is free.

Steve

[Lee Smith]

I must be blind or something.

Sorry to be such a dufuss, but I only see three options or links on this page. One is for the License, one is for receiving updates, and the other is to "Download" the database.

Am I missing something obvious here?

Lee

[SteveB]

I could say its old age, but then the question would be: me or you? (probably both). Click on the download link, and on the download page (near the bottom) you'll have an option to download a CSV file. Its got about 45,000 records, but I converted without effort. It makes a really nice addition to a solution: I use a lookup to get the city and state if the user first enters a zip code.

[Lee Smith]

Hi Steve,

Okay, it's me, call it old age or whatever.

I was so focus on the [color:"blue"] csv extension , duh, I failed to just look for "[color:"red"] Comma Separated Values file ", and of course my searches for csv were helpful either.

Anyway, it has Woodland, which isn't in most of the ones I have been using in the past.

Thanks for pointing to this resource.

Lee

[Brian C]

For people adding this type of table to their existing solutions, I would suggest:

1) Do an error check on bad zipcodes, and bad city names.

2) Create an error report to give you time to determine how the corrections need to be made before doing any kind of updates to fix any errors.

3) Consider only allowing the users to input data into the zipcode field and locking the city/state fields. This helps significantly in catching bad address data before it is allowed to occur.

4) Consider adding an additional field to your zipcode table that designates an entry as being a default city or an acceptable alternative. The USPS web site can be used to lookup zipcodes and determine their default city as well as their alternative acceptable names.

5) Use this new field as part of the relationship to the zipcode table to always select the default city for data entry purposes.

6) Use a related value list based on the zipcode to display selectable alternate cities if any exist.

7) Use a combination of the city/state/zip as the validation key for a city to be considered as valid.

[SteveB]

My, my Brian...you bear a starling resemblence to Marty Feldman.

Steve

[Brian C]

Hmm I suppose I do Well not really. As you can probably tell, Young Frankenstien is a favorite movie of mine

--------

FREDDY: You must be Igor.

(Igor thinks a moment)

IGOR: No, it's pronounced Aye gor.

FREDDY: But they told me it was Ee gor...

IGOR: Well, they were wrong then, weren't they?