php - How to check is timezone identifier valid from code?

Question

I'll try to explain what's the problem here.

According to list of supported timezones from PHP manual, I can see all valid TZ identifiers in PHP.

My first question is how to get that list from code but that's not what I really need.

My final goal is to write function isValidTimezoneId() that returns TRUE if timezone is valid, otherwise it should return FALSE.

function isValidTimezoneId($timezoneId) {
  # ...function body...
  return ?; # TRUE or FALSE
  }

So, when I pass TZ identifier using $timezoneId (string) in function I need boolean result.

Well, what I have so far...

1) Solution using @ operator

First solution I've got is something like this:

function isValidTimezoneId($timezoneId) {
  $savedZone = date_default_timezone_get(); # save current zone
  $res = $savedZone == $timezoneId; # it's TRUE if param matches current zone
  if (!$res) { # 0r...
    @date_default_timezone_set($timezoneId); # try to set new timezone
    $res = date_default_timezone_get() == $timezoneId; # it's true if new timezone set matches param string.
    }
  date_default_timezone_set($savedZone); # restore back old timezone
  return $res; # set result
  }

That works perfectly, but I want another solution (to avoid trying to set wrong timezone)

2) Solution using timezone_identifiers_list()

Then, I was trying to get list of valid timezone identifiers and check it against parameter using in_array() function. So I've tried to use timezone_identifiers_list(), but that was not so good because a lot of timezones was missing in array returned by this function (alias of DateTimeZone::listIdentifiers()). At first sight that was exactly what I was looking for.

function isValidTimezoneId($timezoneId) {
  $zoneList = timezone_identifiers_list(); # list of (all) valid timezones
  return in_array($timezoneId, $zoneList); # set result
  }

This code looks nice and easy but than I've found that $zoneList array contains ~400 elements. According to my calculations it should return 550+ elements. 150+ elements are missing... So that's not good enough as solution for my problem.

3) Solution based on DateTimeZone::listAbbreviations()

This is last step on my way trying to find perfect solution. Using array returned by this method I can extract all timezone identifiers supported by PHP.

function createTZlist() {
  $tza = DateTimeZone::listAbbreviations();
  $tzlist = array();
  foreach ($tza as $zone)
    foreach ($zone as $item) 
      if (is_string($item['timezone_id']) && $item['timezone_id'] != '')
        $tzlist[] = $item['timezone_id'];
  $tzlist = array_unique($tzlist);
  asort($tzlist);
  return array_values($tzlist);
  }

This function returns 563 elements (in Example #2 I've got just 407).

I've tried to find differences between those two arrays:

$a1 = timezone_identifiers_list();
$a2 = createTZlist();

print_r(array_values(array_diff($a2, $a1)));

Result is:

Array
(
    [0] => Africa/Asmera
    [1] => Africa/Timbuktu
    [2] => America/Argentina/ComodRivadavia
    [3] => America/Atka
    [4] => America/Buenos_Aires
    [5] => America/Catamarca
    [6] => America/Coral_Harbour
    [7] => America/Cordoba
    [8] => America/Ensenada
    [9] => America/Fort_Wayne
    [10] => America/Indianapolis
    [11] => America/Jujuy
    [12] => America/Knox_IN
    [13] => America/Louisville
    [14] => America/Mendoza
    [15] => America/Porto_Acre
    [16] => America/Rosario
    [17] => America/Virgin
    [18] => Asia/Ashkhabad
    [19] => Asia/Calcutta
    [20] => Asia/Chungking
    [21] => Asia/Dacca
    [22] => Asia/Istanbul
    [23] => Asia/Katmandu
    [24] => Asia/Macao
    [25] => Asia/Saigon
    [26] => Asia/Tel_Aviv
    [27] => Asia/Thimbu
    [28] => Asia/Ujung_Pandang
    [29] => Asia/Ulan_Bator
    [30] => Atlantic/Faeroe
    [31] => Atlantic/Jan_Mayen
    [32] => Australia/ACT
    [33] => Australia/Canberra
    [34] => Australia/LHI
    [35] => Australia/NSW
    [36] => Australia/North
    [37] => Australia/Queensland
    [38] => Australia/South
    [39] => Australia/Tasmania
    [40] => Australia/Victoria
    [41] => Australia/West
    [42] => Australia/Yancowinna
    [43] => Brazil/Acre
    [44] => Brazil/DeNoronha
    [45] => Brazil/East
    [46] => Brazil/West
    [47] => CET
    [48] => CST6CDT
    [49] => Canada/Atlantic
    [50] => Canada/Central
    [51] => Canada/East-Saskatchewan
    [52] => Canada/Eastern
    [53] => Canada/Mountain
    [54] => Canada/Newfoundland
    [55] => Canada/Pacific
    [56] => Canada/Saskatchewan
    [57] => Canada/Yukon
    [58] => Chile/Continental
    [59] => Chile/EasterIsland
    [60] => Cuba
    [61] => EET
    [62] => EST
    [63] => EST5EDT
    [64] => Egypt
    [65] => Eire
    [66] => Etc/GMT
    [67] => Etc/GMT+0
    [68] => Etc/GMT+1
    [69] => Etc/GMT+10
    [70] => Etc/GMT+11
    [71] => Etc/GMT+12
    [72] => Etc/GMT+2
    [73] => Etc/GMT+3
    [74] => Etc/GMT+4
    [75] => Etc/GMT+5
    [76] => Etc/GMT+6
    [77] => Etc/GMT+7
    [78] => Etc/GMT+8
    [79] => Etc/GMT+9
    [80] => Etc/GMT-0
    [81] => Etc/GMT-1
    [82] => Etc/GMT-10
    [83] => Etc/GMT-11
    [84] => Etc/GMT-12
    [85] => Etc/GMT-13
    [86] => Etc/GMT-14
    [87] => Etc/GMT-2
    [88] => Etc/GMT-3
    [89] => Etc/GMT-4
    [90] => Etc/GMT-5
    [91] => Etc/GMT-6
    [92] => Etc/GMT-7
    [93] => Etc/GMT-8
    [94] => Etc/GMT-9
    [95] => Etc/GMT0
    [96] => Etc/Greenwich
    [97] => Etc/UCT
    [98] => Etc/UTC
    [99] => Etc/Universal
    [100] => Etc/Zulu
    [101] => Europe/Belfast
    [102] => Europe/Nicosia
    [103] => Europe/Tiraspol
    [104] => Factory
    [105] => GB
    [106] => GB-Eire
    [107] => GMT
    [108] => GMT+0
    [109] => GMT-0
    [110] => GMT0
    [111] => Greenwich
    [112] => HST
    [113] => Hongkong
    [114] => Iceland
    [115] => Iran
    [116] => Israel
    [117] => Jamaica
    [118] => Japan
    [119] => Kwajalein
    [120] => Libya
    [121] => MET
    [122] => MST
    [123] => MST7MDT
    [124] => Mexico/BajaNorte
    [125] => Mexico/BajaSur
    [126] => Mexico/General
    [127] => NZ
    [128] => NZ-CHAT
    [129] => Navajo
    [130] => PRC
    [131] => PST8PDT
    [132] => Pacific/Ponape
    [133] => Pacific/Samoa
    [134] => Pacific/Truk
    [135] => Pacific/Yap
    [136] => Poland
    [137] => Portugal
    [138] => ROC
    [139] => ROK
    [140] => Singapore
    [141] => Turkey
    [142] => UCT
    [143] => US/Alaska
    [144] => US/Aleutian
    [145] => US/Arizona
    [146] => US/Central
    [147] => US/East-Indiana
    [148] => US/Eastern
    [149] => US/Hawaii
    [150] => US/Indiana-Starke
    [151] => US/Michigan
    [152] => US/Mountain
    [153] => US/Pacific
    [154] => US/Pacific-New
    [155] => US/Samoa
    [156] => Universal
    [157] => W-SU
    [158] => WET
    [159] => Zulu
)

This list contains all valid TZ identifiers that Example #2 failed to match.

There's four TZ identifiers more (part of $a1):

print_r(array_values(array_diff($a1, $a2)));

Output

Array
(
    [0] => America/Bahia_Banderas
    [1] => Antarctica/Macquarie
    [2] => Pacific/Chuuk
    [3] => Pacific/Pohnpei
)

So now, I have almost perfect solution...

function isValidTimezoneId($timezoneId) {
  $zoneList = createTZlist(); # list of all valid timezones (last 4 are not included)
  return in_array($timezoneId, $zoneList); # set result
  }

That's my solution and I can use it. Of course, I use this function as part of class so I don't need to generate $zoneList on every methods call.

What I really need here?

I'm wondering, is there any easier (quicker) solution to get list of all valid timezone identifiers as array (I want to avoid extracting that list from DateTimeZone::listAbbreviations() if that's possible)? Or if you know another way how to check is timezone parameter valid, please let me know (I repeat, @ operator can't be part of solution).

---

P.S. If you need more details and examples, let me know. I guess you don't.

I'm using PHP 5.3.5 (think that's not important).

---

Update

Any part of code that throws exception on invalid timezone string (hidden using @ or caught using try..catch block) is not solution I'm looking for.

---

Another update

I've put small bounty on this question!

Now I'm looking for the easiest way how to extract list of all timezone identifiers in PHP array.

Answer 1

Why not use @ operator? This code works pretty well, and you don't change default timezone:

function isValidTimezoneId($timezoneId) {
    @$tz=timezone_open($timezoneId);
    return $tz!==FALSE;
}

If you don't want @, you can do:

function isValidTimezoneId($timezoneId) {
    try{
        new DateTimeZone($timezoneId);
    }catch(Exception $e){
        return FALSE;
    }
    return TRUE;
}