How to Display dates in local time zone

Question & Answer
1

My data is stored using UTC…however the timezone that I am viewing the data from is BST…
How can I make sure that my visual displays the data in the local timezone of the viewer.

I have seen posts where ‘calculated’ fields have been used to show an adjusted time…but in reality the data (date) is correct in the data (i.e. UTC)…I’d just like to see it displayed as BST (UTC+1) or EDT (UTC-4)…etc…

This way when I show last hour I will get the last hour of data…and the data will make more sense to the viewer.

Hopefully there is a setting in QuickSight to display dates/time in localtime…but I can’t seem to see it…

Thanks
Ray

2

I would use relative filters with UTC time and have all of your visuals use BST time with a calculated field.

As of answering this question, it is 3:20PM. The latest event was at 1pm central time. And my timestamp field is in central time. However, if I filter for the past 3 hours in QuickSight nothing comes up because it is in UTC.

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If I go back 8 hours it will show the events that came back for that hour.

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If I casted this timestamp field to UTC it would add 5 hours and then my last 3 hours filter would work.

In conclusion, I would use the UTC timestamp as a field to filter on. And then use a newly created calculated field as the field you use for your x / y axis / tables.

Let me know if that helps or answered your question!

3

Hi, @Ray. We hope that Max’s solution worked for you. I am marking his reply as, “Solution,” but let us know if this is not resolved. Thanks!

4

Hi @Ray and @max.rp

We are now supporting custom time zone (QuickSight launches Custom Time Zone) as an out-of-box feature for QS. Please try and let us know if any feedbacks. Thanks!

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