Convert Timezone Using Timezone Database Format

[willchamp]

I have a query that contains two columns:

1. Times: Contains a single time per row. Examples: 06:00, 12:00, 14:00, etc.
2. Zone ID: Contains the timezone in the TZ Database format. Examples: Central Standard Time in the US is America/Chicago, UTC is Etc/UTC, etc.

Currently, the times are associated with the timezone in the Zone ID field. If a time is 06:00 and the Zone ID is America/Chicago, it means it is 6:00 AM CST. I am trying to convert all times to UTC (GMT). To do that, I have:

1. Converted times data type to a date/time/timezone field
2. Have tried creating a new field, DateTimeZone, using the following:

DateTimeZone.From([times], [Zone ID])​

This is giving me the following error:

DataFormat.Error: The specified culture is not supported.
Details:
America/Chicago

I am wondering if anyone has tips on getting around this? I've made sure the report is in English - US format. I'm under the impression you need to use the TZ format. Other things I've tried include creating a new duration column based off the GMT adjustment and adding that. However, that won't work, either!

[Anonymous]

Hi @willchamp ,

Based on your description, you want to raise a query about time zone conversion using the TZ database format. Your method does not directly support TZ database identifiers (e.g., "America/Chicago") as input to the time zone parameter. This method typically requires a numeric offset from UTC, not a named time zone identifier.
You can create a region column to map to the TZ data to match the offset and then use DateTimeZone.SwitchZone().
DateTimeZone.From - PowerQuery M | Microsoft Learn
DateTimeZone.SwitchZone - PowerQuery M | Microsoft Learn
How-To: Convert UTC to Your Local Time Zone in Pow... - Microsoft Fabric Community

Best regards,
Albert He

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