# About local time

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-local-time/151408>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [October 21, 2008, 4:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-local-time/151408 "2008-10-21T04:35:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![daociyiyou](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@daociyiyou](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/daociyiyou)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 4:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-local-time/151408/1 "2008-10-21T04:35:02Z")

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I want to read a database column value to use in my app.That is  
t.timestamp.I use it like this:  
\<%=user.created\_at-%\>,but the displayed time is based on utc while  
what i want it to be is chinese BeiJing time.How do i manage this? set  
config.time\_zone? The stored time data value is different from the  
displayed time data value?

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**Author:** ![daociyiyou](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@daociyiyou](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/daociyiyou)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 8:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-local-time/151408/2 "2008-10-21T08:13:19Z")

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any one help me?

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**Author:** ![daociyiyou](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@daociyiyou](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/daociyiyou)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 10:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/about-local-time/151408/3 "2008-10-21T10:44:35Z")

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I recommend you store the data in your database in UTC format. You  
can always reformat the data being displayed to local time zone.  
Have a look at the tzinfo plugin for proper conversion to local time  
with day light savings, etc

[http://tzinfo.rubyforge.org/doc/files/README.html](http://tzinfo.rubyforge.org/doc/files/README.html)  
.