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UtcOffset

This content is for v0.5.0. Switch to the latest version for up-to-date documentation.

Canonicalizes one UTC offset mention per call — a human-notation numeric offset (UTC+5, +0530, +05:30, Z) — to canonical extended +HH:MM.

In plain language: give it UTC+5, GMT-05:30, +0530, or Z and it hands back +05:00, -05:30, +05:30, or +00:00 per ISO 8601-1:2019 offset representations (RFC 3339 timestamp-compatible subset for ±HH:MM and Z). The range is the real-world total-minutes bound -12:00..+14:00 (Baker Island to Kiritimati); -00:00 is refused because it states ignorance of the offset, not zero.

What it recognizes — and what it does not

Section titled “What it recognizes — and what it does not”
RecognizesDoes not recognize
Prefixed offsets (UTC+5, utc+5, GMT+5, GMT-05:30, UTC+05:30 — human semantics, never POSIX sign-flipped)Out-of-range prefixed shapes (UTC+15:00) → MISSING (grammar |HH| ≤ 14 guard never claims them)
Bare offsets (+05, +0530, +05:30, -08:00 — reduced, basic, extended forms)Bare +15:00 → MISSING (same grammar guard)
Z / z designator (→ +00:00)Claimed-but-impossible totals (+14:30, -12:30 — inside the shape guard, past the signed total-minutes bound) → INVALID
Embedded mentions (meeting at +05:30 tomorrow — span covers the offset only)Unknown offset (-00:00, any accepted form) → INVALID (ignorance, not zero)
Zone keys (Etc/GMT+5 — slash-aware lookbehind forbids mid-key extraction; belongs to Timezone) → MISSING
Military prose (Zulu) → MISSING (not the Z designator)

POSIX-sign callout: GMT+5 renders +05:00 — documented human notation. POSIX would read GMT+5 as UTC−05:00; the grammar is explicitly human-semantics and never sign-flips. Whole-hour Etc/GMT±X keys stay in Timezone with their sign kept as authored.

Canonical output

Section titled “Canonical output”

Default output_format is "extended" (identity — normalize() returns +HH:MM).

output_formatRendersExample
(default) extended / None / "default"Signed zero-padded +HH:MM+05:30
basicPresentation-only re-encoding, colon stripped (re-enters: parses back to the same extended canonical)+0530

Any other value raises ContractError — including abbreviation, removed-by-design outputs that would project away the numeric value.

from paxman.capabilities import UtcOffset
import paxman


paxman.register_all_shipped()
print(paxman.canonicalize("UTC+5", UtcOffset.create_contract()).canonicalized_value)
print(paxman.canonicalize("+0530", UtcOffset.create_contract()).canonicalized_value)
print(paxman.canonicalize("Z", UtcOffset.create_contract()).canonicalized_value)
print(paxman.canonicalize("GMT-05:30", UtcOffset.create_contract()).canonicalized_value)
print(paxman.canonicalize("+05:30", UtcOffset.create_contract(output_format="basic")).canonicalized_value)

Contract

Section titled “Contract”
contract = UtcOffset.create_contract(
    output_format=None,  # "extended" (default), "basic" (presentation-only re-encoding)
    # plus every common field: suppress_common_words / excluded_rules / pinned_rules / year / extra_grammars
)
  • One grammar (utc_offset_recognition: human-notation regex with slash-aware lookbehind and right word guard), one rule (Section offset-structure).
  • year filters by publication_year; e.g., year=2010 drops the ISO 8601-1:2019 rule → UTC+5 becomes INVALID (year=2020 keeps it — the rule is 2019).
  • suppress_common_words is a no-op here: the offset matcher is not suppressible.
  • Deterministic by construction: same input + contract + library snapshot → same output. No clock, no zone lookup — shape plus total-minutes arithmetic only.

Statuses

Section titled “Statuses”
InputContractStatusValue / why
UTC+5defaultsSUCCESS"+05:00" (zero-pad, human semantics)
GMT-05:30defaultsSUCCESS"-05:30"
+0530defaultsSUCCESS"+05:30" (basic form recognized)
+05:30defaultsSUCCESS"+05:30"
Z / zdefaultsSUCCESS"+00:00" (zero designator)
+14:00 / -12:00defaultsSUCCESSrange endpoints hold (Kiritimati / Baker Island)
+0530output_format="basic"SUCCESS"+0530" (re-encoding; re-enters to the same extended canonical)
-00:00anyINVALIDunknown-offset states ignorance — a different entity from zero
+14:30 / -12:30anyINVALIDclaimed shape past the signed total-minutes bound
+15:00 / UTC+15:00anyMISSINGgrammar range guard never claims them
+05:60 / +05:6 / UTC+5:60anyMISSINGmalformed minutes never claimed — right edge forbids :/+/- continuations, so no truncated +05:00 SUCCESS (#162)
Etc/GMT+5anyMISSINGslash-glued guard rejects mid-key extraction
ZuluanyMISSINGmilitary prose, not the designator
+05:30 and -08:00anyraises MultipleMentionsErrortwo distinct offsets fail fast (single_value=True)
UTC+5year=2010INVALIDrule is 2019, dropped
UTC+5output_format="abbreviation"raises ContractErroronly basic is offered

A single grammar plus a single deterministic rule yields at most one value per mention, so AMBIGUOUS is unreachable for this capability (two distinct mentions raise instead).

Notebook snippet — normalize a mixed column

Section titled “Notebook snippet — normalize a mixed column”
import paxman
from paxman.capabilities import UtcOffset
from paxman.core.domain import Resolution
from paxman.core.errors import ContractError


paxman.register_all_shipped()
contract = UtcOffset.create_contract()


rows = [
    "UTC+5",
    "GMT-05:30",
    "+0530",
    "+05:30",
    "Z",
    "+14:00",
    "-12:00",
    "-00:00",
    "+14:30",
    "+15:00",
    "UTC+15:00",
    "Etc/GMT+5",
    "Zulu",
]


for text in rows:
    r = paxman.canonicalize(text, contract)
    val = r.canonicalized_value if r.status == Resolution.SUCCESS else "—"
    rule = r.candidates[0].validation_rule if r.candidates else "—"
    print(f"{text!r:28} → {r.status.value:10} {val!r:24} ({rule})")


print(paxman.canonicalize("+05:30", UtcOffset.create_contract(output_format="basic")).canonicalized_value)
try:
    UtcOffset.create_contract(output_format="abbreviation")
except ContractError as e:
    print(f"abbreviation → ContractError: {e}")

Provenance

Section titled “Provenance”
  • ISO 8601-1 2019 (specification; offset representations and real-world range, normalized to +HH:MM) — Section offset-structure (ISO 8601-1:2019 Section 3 offset representations; RFC 3339 Section 5.6 time-numoffset +-HH:MM, Z)

Each candidate’s validation_rule carries the section, and candidate.provenance[0].publication_year the year.

See also: Timezone, Execution Result, Provenance, Segmentation.