Desktop User Guides > Professional > Interview scripting > Sample management > Sample management facilities > Time zone management
 
Time zone management
When you have respondents in more than one time zone or in a time zone that differs from the time zone in which interviewers are located, you can specify each respondent's time zone in the TimeZone field in the sample record. If you want interviewers to be able to arrange appointments, ensure that this field contains a non-null value. It therefore important that you set a non-null default TimeZone when loading sample records if you want appointments to be made. This happens automatically if you create sample tables using the Participants activity, but if you create the sample tables manually, it is your responsibility to ensure that the default for the TimeZone field is not null.
The value that you enter in this field must be the index of the time zone in the list of time zones stored in the registry. The default is the local Windows server's time zone setting. This is used if the TimeZone field is empty or undefined, or if there is a problem reading from the field. When interviewers are presented with the appointment setting page, the time zone field shows the respondent's time zone as a text. Internally, all time zone handling is performed using UTC times.
Time zones in the registry
Time zone
Displayed as
Index value
Greenwich Standard Time
(GMT) Monrovia, Reykjavik
90
GMT Standard Time
(GMT) Greenwich Mean Time: Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London
85
Morocco Standard Time
(GMT) Casablanca
-2147483571
W. Europe Standard Time
(GMT+01:00) Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
110
Central Europe Standard Time
(GMT+01:00) Belgrade, Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, Prague
95
Romance Standard Time
(GMT+01:00) Brussels, Copenhagen, Madrid, Paris
105
Central European Standard Time
(GMT+01:00) Sarajevo, Skopje, Warsaw, Zagreb
100
W. Central Africa Standard Time
(GMT+01:00) West Central Africa
113
GTB Standard Time
(GMT+02:00) Athens, Bucharest, Istanbul
130
E. Europe Standard Time
(GMT+02:00) Minsk
115
Egypt Standard Time
(GMT+02:00) Cairo
120
Syria Standard Time
(GMT+02:00) Damascus
South Africa Standard Time
(GMT+02:00) Harare, Pretoria
140
FLE Standard Time
(GMT+02:00) Helsinki, Kyiv, Riga, Sofia, Tallinn, Vilnius
125
Israel Standard Time
(GMT+02:00) Jerusalem
135
Jordan Standard Time
(GMT+02:00) Amman
-2147483582
Middle East Standard Time
(GMT+02:00) Beirut
-2147483583
Namibia Standard Time
(GMT+02:00) Windhoek
-2147483578
Arabic Standard Time
(GMT+03:00) Baghdad
158
Arab Standard Time
(GMT+03:00) Kuwait, Riyadh
150
Russian Standard Time
(GMT+03:00) Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd
145
E. Africa Standard Time
(GMT+03:00) Nairobi
155
Georgian Standard Time
(GMT+03:00) Tbilisi
-2147483577
Iran Standard Time
(GMT+03:30) Tehran
160
Arabian Standard Time
(GMT+04:00) Abu Dhabi, Muscat
165
Caucasus Standard Time
(GMT+04:00) Baku, Tbilisi, Yerevan
170
Azerbaijan Standard Time
(GMT+04:00) Baku
-2147483584
Mauritius Standard Time
(GMT+04:00) Port Louis
-2147483569
Caucasus Standard Time
(GMT+04:00) Yerevan
170
Afghanistan Standard Time
(GMT+04:30) Kabul
175
Paraguay Standard Time
(GMT+05:00) Asuncion
-2147483567
Ekaterinburg Standard Time
(GMT+05:00) Ekaterinburg
180
West Asia Standard Time
(GMT+05:00) Tashkent
185
Pakistan Standard Time
GMT+05:00) Islamabad, Karachi
-2147483570
India Standard Time
(GMT+05:30) Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi
190
Nepal Standard Time
(GMT+05:45) Kathmandu
193
N. Central Asia Standard Time
(GMT+06:00) Novosibirsk
201
Central Asia Standard Time
(GMT+06:00) Astana
195
Bangladesh Standard Time
(GMT+06:00) Dhaka
-2147483565
Sri Lanka Standard Time
(GMT+06:00) Sri Jayawardenepura
200
Myanmar Standard Time
(GMT+06:30) Yangon (Rangoon)
203
SE Asia Standard Time
(GMT+07:00) Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta
205
North Asia Standard Time
(GMT+07:00) Krasnoyarsk
207
China Standard Time
(GMT+08:00) Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Urumqi
210
North Asia East Standard Time
(GMT+08:00) Irkutsk
227
Singapore Standard Time
(GMT+08:00) Kuala Lumpur, Singapore
215
W. Australia Standard Time
(GMT+08:00) Perth
225
Taipei Standard Time
(GMT+08:00) Taipei
220
Ulaanbaatar Standard Time
(GMT+08:00) Ulaanbaatar
-2147483563
Tokyo Standard Time
(GMT+09:00) Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo
235
Korea Standard Time
(GMT+09:00) Seoul
230
Yakutsk Standard Time
(GMT+09:00) Yakutsk
240
Cen. Australia Standard Time
(GMT+09:30) Adelaide
250
AUS Central Standard Time
(GMT+09:30) Darwin
245
E. Australia Standard Time
(GMT+10:00) Brisbane
260
AUS Eastern Standard Time
(GMT+10:00) Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
255
West Pacific Standard Time
(GMT+10:00) Guam, Port Moresby
275
Tasmania Standard Time
(GMT+10:00) Hobart
265
Vladivostok Standard Time
(GMT+10:00) Vladivostok
270
Central Pacific Standard Time
(GMT+11:00) Solomon Is., New Caledonia
280
Magadan Standard Time
(GMT+12:00) Magadan​
-2147483735
New Zealand Standard Time
(GMT+12:00) Auckland, Wellington
290
Fiji Standard Time
(GMT+12:00) Fiji
285
Kamchatka Standard Time
(GMT+12:00) Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky - Old
-2147483566
Tonga Standard Time
(GMT+13:00) Nuku'alofa
300
Azores Standard Time
(GMT-01:00) Azores
80
Cape Verde Standard Time
(GMT-01:00) Cape Verde Is.
83
Mid-Atlantic Standard Time
(GMT-02:00) Mid-Atlantic
75
Argentina Standard Time
(GMT-03:00) Buenos Aires
-2147483572
E. South America Standard Time
(GMT-03:00) Brasilia
65
SA Eastern Standard Time
(GMT-03:00) Cayenne, Fortaleza
70
Greenland Standard Time
(GMT-03:00) Greenland
73
Montevideo Standard Time
(GMT-03:00) Montevideo
-2147483575
Newfoundland Standard Time
(GMT-03:30) Newfoundland
60
Atlantic Standard Time
(GMT-04:00) Atlantic Time (Canada)
50
Central Brazilian Standard Time
(GMT-04:00) Cuiaba
-2147483576
SA Western Standard Time
(GMT-04:00) Georgetown, La Paz, Manaus, San Juan
55
Pacific SA Standard Time
(GMT-04:00) Santiago
56
Venezuela Standard Time
(GMT-04:30) Caracas
-2147483573
SA Pacific Standard Time
(GMT-05:00) Bogota, Lima, Quito
45
Eastern Standard Time
(GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US, Canada)
35
US Eastern Standard Time
(GMT-05:00) Indiana (East)
40
Central America Standard Time
(GMT-06:00) Central America
33
Central Standard Time
(GMT-06:00) Central Time (US, Canada)
20
Central Standard Time (Mexico)
(GMT-06:00) Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey
-2147483581
Canada Central Standard Time
(GMT-06:00) Saskatchewan
25
US Mountain Standard Time
(GMT-07:00) Arizona
15
Mountain Standard Time
(GMT-07:00) Mountain Time (US, Canada)
10
Mountain Standard Time (Mexico)
(GMT-07:00) Chihuahua, La Paz, Mazatlan
-2147483580
Pacific Standard Time
(GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US, Canada)
4
Pacific Standard Time (Mexico)
(GMT-08:00) Baja California
-2147483579
Alaskan Standard Time
(GMT-09:00) Alaska
3
Hawaiian Standard Time
(GMT-10:00) Hawaii
2
Samoa Standard Time
(GMT-11:00) Samoa
1
Dateline Standard Time
(GMT-12:00) International Date Line West
0
In order for the time zone information in the sample records to be used, the telephone interviewing supervisor must specify the following details using the Interviewing Options activity:
Time zones present in sample records. Sample records that have no time zone specified or whose time zone does not match any of those specified for the project will never be used. If the supervisor does not specify any time zones, then sample management will ignore time zone and calling time information when selecting records for calling.
Calling times. These are the times at which respondents can be called on weekdays and at weekends. A single calling period can be defined for weekdays and another for weekends. The default weekend lasts from 00:01 on Saturday to midnight on Sunday; if certain regions define weekends differently, you can specify these differences in the sample management function that checks whether the current day is a weekday or weekend in the current time zone.
When an interviewer requests a record to call, the sample management script should check which of the project's time zones are currently within the valid calling times and restrict selections to records in those time zones only when applying any other record selection criteria.
For example, suppose that interviewers based in time zone 85 (GMT) are calling respondents in time zones 85 and 110 (Western Europe Standard time, which is one hour ahead of GMT). It is a weekday, and weekday calling times are 9am to 5pm. If an interviewer requests a record at 3:30pm, calls can be made to respondents in either time zone, and other factors such as appointment times and interviewer qualifications are used to determine which record is assigned to the interviewer. If the same interviewer requests another record at 4:45pm, all records for respondents in time zone 110 is ignored because it is now too late to call those respondents. Similarly, if an interviewer requests a record at 8:15am, only records in time zone 110 will be available because it is still too early for respondents in time zone 85 to be called.
Notes
Refer to the following Microsoft support articles for more information on modifying existing time zone settings and creating new time zones.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914387
How to configure daylight saving time for Microsoft Windows operating systems
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=933360
August 2007 cumulative time zone update for Microsoft Windows operating systems
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975353
An August 2009 cumulative daylight saving time (DST) update is available for Windows Mobile-based devices
See also
Sample management facilities