Time Formats

The following table shows some of the ways in which different locales write 11:59 P.M.

Table 1–1 International Time Formats

Locale	Format
Canadian	23:59
Finnish	23.59
German	23.59 Uhr
Norwegian	23.59
Thai	23:59
Great Britain	23:59

Time is represented by both a 12-hour clock and a 24-hour clock. The hour and minute separator can be either a colon ( : ) or a period ( . ).

Time zone splits occur between and within countries. Although a time zone can be described in terms of how many hours it is ahead of, or behind, Coordinated Universal Time, UTC (or Greenwich Mean Time, GMT), this number is not always an integer. For example, Newfoundland is in a time zone that is half an hour different from the adjacent time zone.

Daylight Savings Time (DST) starts and ends on different dates that can vary from country to country. Many countries do not implement DST at all. Additionally, Daylight Savings Time can vary within a time zone. In the U.S. it is a state decision.