I discuss common pitfalls developers encounter when handling DateTime and timezone values in applications. Inadequate defensive coding around date/time operations frequently leads to production issues.
Key Problems Identified
Real-world consequences of poor DateTime handling include:
- Invoice accuracy problems
- Email delivery timing issues for international recipients
- Incorrect financial calculations
- Unexpected data anomalies in reports
- Unpredictable scheduled task behavior
Timezone-Specific Challenges
Expanding internationally compounds these issues. When an invoice batch is run at night, this will be happening mid day for a customer at the other side of the globe.
This creates complications including:
- Date discrepancies for international customers
- Reports spanning split days
- Unclear timestamps in communications
- Delivery time shifts due to daylight saving variations
Purpose
This post serves as an awareness piece about common pitfalls, with future technical deep-dives addressing solutions and robust system design for handling temporal data defensively.