Question

I need help understand how mysql can determine what the timezone is when I use the function now() (in mysql) when I insert into mysql database. The datetime format is YYYY-MM-DD 00:00:00. How do you get the user to get the right time at their location?

Does this question make sense?

Thank you for your time!

Answer 1

now() is always refer to the server time from its timezone.

If you have both server and user timezone,
it can be done via function convert_tz,
such as

set @user_time_zone:='+02:00';
set @server_time_zone:='+08:00';

-- server timezone always come first
-- as now() is from server time
SELECT CONVERT_TZ(now(),@server_time_zone, @user_time_zone);