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ABAP Keyword Documentation →  ABAP - Reference →  Processing Internal Data →  Date and Time Processing →  Date, Time, Time Stamp, and Time Zones 

System Time Zone and User Time Zone

Two time zones are preconfigured in AS ABAP, the system time zone and the user time zone.

  • The system time zone is the time zone of the system time and the system date and cannot be changed while the system is running. It is contained in the column TZONESYS in the database table TTZCU.
  • The user time zone is a time zone that can be defined for the user time and user date of each individual user in the user master record. It is contained in the system field sy-zonlo.

Both time zones are displayed in transaction SU01 on the Fixed Values tab, however only the user time zone can be changed here. This requires a new logon to take effect. If no user time zone is defined in the user master record, or the specified time zone is invalid or inactive, the default value from the column TZONEDEF in the database table TTZCU is used. If this value is invalid or inactive, the system time zone is used.

Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54

System Time and System Date

The system time and the system date are the local time and local date in AS ABAP in the system time zone. They are produced by regular synchronizations between the clock of the ABAP runtime server and the clock of the database server. During the synchronization process, the ABAP runtime environment clock is set to the database server clock. Since this happens on all application servers in AS ABAP, the ABAP runtime environment clock is synchronized with the clocks on all other application servers and with the database system clock, and therefore shows the system time and system date of the entire AS ABAP.

The character-like system fields sy-uzeit and sy-datum are provided with the system time and system date at certain times.

User Time and User Date

The user time and the user date are the local time and local date of the current user, calculated from the system time and the user time zone. The character-like system fields sy-timlo and sy-datlo are provided with the user time and user date at certain times. Furthermore, the content of the system field sy-zonlo can be passed to the statement CONVERT TIME STAMP, after a time stamp is created using GET TIME STAMP, to obtain the user time and user date.