Checking if new interval overlaps - MySQL (or PHP)

Question

I\'ve been thinking on how I can simplify the problem presented here. Complex MySQL Query - Checking for overlapping DATE intervals

At it\'s heart, minus all the fa

Answer 1

You can phrase an insert as:

insert into schedules(start, end)
    select s, e
    from (select $start s, $end as e) t
    where not exists (select 1
                      from schedules s2
                      where s.start <= t.end and s.end >= t.start
                     );

This will only insert the value if it doesn't overlap with an existing row in the table.