While writing some experiments on the Java Data/Time API. I was wondering why this code doesn't function as expected:
ZonedDateTime CasaNow = ZonedDateTime.now(ZoneId.of("Africa/Casablanca"));
System.out.println(CasaNow);
// 2020-02-20T11:32:28.063419Z[Africa/Casablanca]
I was expecting it to print "2020-02-20T12:32:28.063419Z[Africa/Casablanca]" like in my clock.
This is the exact time in Casablanca but the program produces an hour behind that time. What am I doing wrong?
Update
JDK Info:
java 11.0.1 2018-10-16 LTS
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment 18.9 (build 11.0.1+13-LTS)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM 18.9 (build 11.0.1+13-LTS, mixed mode)
Locale configuration of the operating system:
As far as I understand, since 2018 Morocco is on UTC+01:00 except that is on offset +00:00 (often written as Z) during the month of Ramadan. So you are correct: getting a time in UTC (Z) today is unexpected since the Ramadan doesn’t begin until late April Gregorian.
According to BBC Morocco in October 2018 (1 year 4 months ago as of writing) decided to stay on its previous summer time (DST) also in winter. So my guess is that Stephen C is correct in the comment the time zone database in your Java installation is older than October 2018. Java therefore assumes standard time now and incorrectly gives you the time in UTC.
For what it‘s worth I just got 2020-02-20T19:08:47.375Z[Africa/Casablanca] on Java 8 and 2020-02-20T20:06:43.174686+01:00[Africa/Casablanca] on Java 11. So it seems that my Java 8 is from before October 2018 and my Java 11 is newer. As far as I remember none of them has had its time zone database updated after I installed them.
Timezone Updater Tool
Since you are using Oracle Java, the solution is to update Java’s time zone database using the Timezone Updater Tool. See the link at the bottom and follow the instructions given there. There have been a couple of Stack Overflow questions about that tool failing, though, so I hope that you will manage. The last resort would be to install a whole new Java runtime environment.
Links
- Morocco abruptly drops clock change on BBC 28 October 2018
- Clock Changes in Casablanca, Morocco on timeanddate.com
- Timezone Updater Tool on oracle.com