Specifies the time zone offset from UTC, in minutes, to use for the current session.

Data type: INTEGER

Access: Readable/Writeable

Applies to: SESSION system handle

The AVM uses the TIMEZONE value to calculate the results of:
  • the functions DATETIME-TZ, MTIME, NOW, TIME, TIMEZONE, and TODAY
  • direct assignment operations between DATE, DATETIME, and DATETIME-TZ data types
  • the special TODAY and NOW initial values for database and temp-table fields with DATE, DATETIME, and DATETIME-TZ data types.

For example, the following code shows how TIMEZONE Is used in a direct assignment of a DATE value to a DATETIME-TZ value:

DEFINE VARIABLE dDate AS DATE NO-UNDO.
DEFINE VARIABLE tzDate AS DATETIME-TZ NO-UNDO.

dDate = 1/25.
tzDate = dDate.
DISPLAY tzDate.
Because the DATETIME-TZ data type contains more information than a DATE data type, the time value of tzDate defaults to midnight. If SESSION:TIMEZONE is not set, the timezone defaults to the session's timezone, and the code displays: 
01/25/2016 00:00:00.000-5:00
However, if SESSION:TIMEZONE is set to 120, the timezone is offset from UTC by two hours, and the code displays: 
01/25/2016 07:00:00.000+2:00

For more information on assignments with time data types, see the ASSIGN statement.