How to convert Local time to UTC time in Delphi? and how to convert it back from UTC to local time?

This is the function that I use to convert from UTC to local.

function LocalDateTimeFromUTCDateTime(const UTCDateTime: TDateTime): TDateTime;
var
  LocalSystemTime: TSystemTime;
  UTCSystemTime: TSystemTime;
  LocalFileTime: TFileTime;
  UTCFileTime: TFileTime;
begin
  DateTimeToSystemTime(UTCDateTime, UTCSystemTime);
  SystemTimeToFileTime(UTCSystemTime, UTCFileTime);
  if FileTimeToLocalFileTime(UTCFileTime, LocalFileTime) 
  and FileTimeToSystemTime(LocalFileTime, LocalSystemTime) then begin
    Result := SystemTimeToDateTime(LocalSystemTime);
  end else begin
    Result := UTCDateTime;  // Default to UTC if any conversion function fails.
  end;
end;

As you can see the function transforms the UTC date time as follows:

• Date time -> system time
• System time -> file time
• File time -> local file time (this is the conversion from UTC to local)
• Local file time -> system time
• System time -> date time

It should be obvious how to reverse this.

---

Note that this conversion treats daylight saving as it is now rather than as it is/was at the time being converted. The DateUtils.TTimeZone type, introduced in XE, attempts to do just that. The code becomes:

LocalDateTime := TTimeZone.Local.ToLocalTime(UniversalDateTime);

In the other direction use ToUniversalTime.

This class appears to be (loosely) modelled on the .net TimeZone class.

A word of warning. Do not expect the attempt to account for daylight savings at the time being converted to be 100% accurate. It is simply impossible to achieve that. At least without a time machine. And that's just considering times in the future. Even times in the past are complex. Raymond Chen discusses the issue here: Why Daylight Savings Time is nonintuitive.

you can use TzSpecificLocalTimeToSystemTime and SystemTimeToTzSpecificLocalTime from kernel32.

var
  Form1: TForm1;

function TzSpecificLocalTimeToSystemTime(lpTimeZoneInformation: PTimeZoneInformation; var lpLocalTime, lpUniversalTime: TSystemTime): BOOL; stdcall;
function SystemTimeToTzSpecificLocalTime(lpTimeZoneInformation: PTimeZoneInformation; var lpUniversalTime,lpLocalTime: TSystemTime): BOOL; stdcall;

implementation

function TzSpecificLocalTimeToSystemTime; external kernel32 name 'TzSpecificLocalTimeToSystemTime';
function SystemTimeToTzSpecificLocalTime; external kernel32 name 'SystemTimeToTzSpecificLocalTime';

{$R *.dfm}


Function DateTime2UnivDateTime(d:TDateTime):TDateTime;
var
 TZI:TTimeZoneInformation;
 LocalTime, UniversalTime:TSystemTime;
begin
  GetTimeZoneInformation(tzi);
  DateTimeToSystemTime(d,LocalTime);
  TzSpecificLocalTimeToSystemTime(@tzi,LocalTime,UniversalTime);
  Result := SystemTimeToDateTime(UniversalTime);

end;

Function UnivDateTime2LocalDateTime(d:TDateTime):TDateTime;
var
 TZI:TTimeZoneInformation;
 LocalTime, UniversalTime:TSystemTime;
begin
  GetTimeZoneInformation(tzi);
  DateTimeToSystemTime(d,UniversalTime);
  SystemTimeToTzSpecificLocalTime(@tzi,UniversalTime,LocalTime);
  Result := SystemTimeToDateTime(LocalTime);
end;


procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var

 Date,Univdate,DateAgain:TDateTime;

begin
  Date := Now;
  Univdate := DateTime2UnivDateTime(Date);
  DateAgain := UnivDateTime2LocalDateTime(Univdate);
  Showmessage(DateTimeToStr(Date) +#13#10 + DateTimeToStr(Univdate)+#13#10 + DateTimeToStr(DateAgain));
end;

As you are using XE2, you can use the System.DateUtils.TTimeZone.

You can check this good post explaining the methods and how it works and examples : http://alex.ciobanu.org/?p=373