Fractional Timezones
Most developers assume UTC offsets are whole integers (e.g., -5, +1). This assumption leads to catastrophic bugs when dealing with regions that use fractional offsets.
The 30-Minute Offsets
| Offset | Region |
|---|---|
| UTC-3:30 | Newfoundland Standard Time (Canada) |
| UTC+3:30 | Iran Standard Time |
| UTC+4:30 | Afghanistan Time |
| UTC+5:30 | India Standard Time |
| UTC+6:30 | Myanmar Time |
| UTC+9:30 | Australian Central Standard Time |
The 15-Minute Offsets
Yes, 15-minute offsets exist, primarily in Nepal (UTC+5:45) and the Chatham Islands (UTC+12:45). Your date parsing library must be capable of handling decimal hours, not just integers.