Time zone is used to specify the time offset used for parsing dates and writing dates as text.

Time zone can either be specified using a time zone ID, e.g. "America/Los_Angeles", which also takes daylight saving time into account, or using an absolute offset, e.g. "GMT+10".

A time zone usually complements a Date and Time Format. In such case, the time zone specification must match the format, i.e. if the format starts with "joda:", the time zone must also be prefixed "joda:", and vice versa. Both Java and Joda time zone can be selected at the same time using a semicolon-separated list, e.g. "java:America/Los_Angeles;joda:America/Los_Angeles".

Note that if an invalid string is specified as the Java time zone ID, no exception is thrown and Java uses the default "GMT" time zone (unlike Joda, which throws an exception).

	Note
	If the Time zone is not explicitly specified, CloverETL will use the system default time zone. The default time zone can be changed in the defaultProperties file or via the CloverETL Server. See Chapter 18, Engine Configuration for more information.

For further reading about time and time zones, see java.util.TimeZone, org.joda.time.DateTimeZone, and http://www.odi.ch/prog/design/datetime.php.