Rails validate uniqueness of date ranges

Question

I have an application that involves absence records for employees.

I need to ensure that the start and end dates for each record don\'t overlap.

So for example,

Answer 1

Use the gem validates_overlap.

gem 'validates_overlap'

For example, if you have a model called Meeting with a start_date and end_date fields of type date, you can easily validate that they don't overlap.

class Meeting < ActiveRecord::Base
  validates :start_date, :end_date, overlap: true 
end

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Another more realistic example, say a Meeting belongs_to a User, you can scope it out, so it only validates meetings for a particular user.

class Meeting < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to User
  validates :start_date, :end_date, overlap: { scope: 'user_id',
                                             message_content: 'overlaps with Users other meetings.' }
end