Add arrow.timezone() function for creating timezone objects

arrow/__init__.py

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 from ._version import __version__
-from .api import get, now, utcnow
+from .api import get, now, timezone, utcnow
 from .arrow import Arrow
 from .factory import ArrowFactory
 from .formatter import (
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
     "__version__",
     "get",
     "now",
+    "timezone",
     "utcnow",
     "Arrow",
     "ArrowFactory",

arrow/api.py

@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 from arrow.arrow import TZ_EXPR, Arrow
 from arrow.constants import DEFAULT_LOCALE
 from arrow.factory import ArrowFactory
+from arrow.parser import TzinfoParser
 
 # internal default factory.
 _factory = ArrowFactory()
@@ -118,4 +119,20 @@ def factory(type: Type[Arrow]) -> ArrowFactory:
     return ArrowFactory(type)
 
 
-__all__ = ["get", "utcnow", "now", "factory"]
+def timezone(tz_str: str) -> dt_tzinfo:
+    """Returns a timezone object from a timezone string expression.
+
+    :param tz_str: A timezone string expression, e.g. ``"US/Pacific"``, ``"UTC"``, ``"local"``.
+
+    Usage::
+
+        >>> arrow.timezone("US/Pacific")
+        zoneinfo.ZoneInfo(key='US/Pacific')
+        >>> arrow.timezone("UTC")
+        datetime.timezone.utc
+
+    """
+    return TzinfoParser.parse(tz_str)
+
+
+__all__ = ["get", "utcnow", "now", "factory", "timezone"]

tests/test_api.py

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import pytest
+
 import arrow
 
 
@@ -25,3 +27,19 @@ class MockCustomArrowClass(arrow.Arrow):
 
         assert isinstance(result, arrow.factory.ArrowFactory)
         assert isinstance(result.utcnow(), MockCustomArrowClass)
+
+    def test_timezone_utc(self):
+        tz = arrow.timezone("UTC")
+        assert str(tz) == "UTC"
+
+    def test_timezone_zoneinfo(self):
+        tz = arrow.timezone("US/Pacific")
+        assert str(tz) == "US/Pacific"
+
+    def test_timezone_local(self):
+        tz = arrow.timezone("local")
+        assert tz is not None
+
+    def test_timezone_invalid(self):
+        with pytest.raises(arrow.parser.ParserError):
+            arrow.timezone("not/a/timezone")