Description of Zone Time Format

Zone times must be entered in hours, minutes and seconds, as the difference between the local zone time and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Zone times west of Greenwich (London, UK) are normally positive, and zone times east of Greenwich are normally negative.

Times must have at least one element:

•An hour number (e.g. 1, 2, 3, ..., 23)

Optionally there may also be:

•A sign (+ve western longitudes, -ve eastern longitudes)

•A minutes number (e.g. 1, 2, 3, ..., 59)

•A seconds number (e.g. 1, 2, 3, ..., 59)

Separators between the elements within the time may be any of the following:

blank( ); slash(/); period(.); colon(:); semi-colon(;) or comma(,)

Some examples of valid zone times are as follows.

 5                +5                +5:00                        +5.00                +5 00 00

 -9:30                -9 30                -9 30 00

 +6:23:59

 -12:30