Algorithm to detect overlapping periods [duplicate]

Answer 1

There is a wonderful library with good reviews on CodeProject: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/168662/Time-Period-Library-for-NET

That library does a lot of work concerning overlap, intersecting them, etc. It's too big to copy/paste all of it, but I'll see which specific parts which can be useful to you.

Answer 2

Simple check to see if two time periods overlap:

bool overlap = a.start < b.end && b.start < a.end;

or in your code:

bool overlap = tStartA < tEndB && tStartB < tEndA;

(Use <= instead of < if you change your mind about wanting to say that two periods that just touch each other overlap.)

Answer 3

--logic FOR OVERLAPPING DATES
DECLARE @StartDate datetime  --Reference start date
DECLARE @EndDate datetime    --Reference end date
DECLARE @NewStartDate datetime --New Start date
DECLARE @NewEndDate datetime   --New End Date

Select 
(Case 
    when @StartDate is null 
        then @NewStartDate
    when (@StartDate<@NewStartDate and  @EndDate < @NewStartDate)
        then @NewStartDate
    when (@StartDate<@NewStartDate and  @EndDate > @NewEndDate)
        then @NewStartDate
    when (@StartDate<@NewStartDate and  @EndDate > @NewStartDate)
        then @NewStartDate  
    when (@StartDate>@NewStartDate and  @NewEndDate < @StartDate)
        then @NewStartDate
    else @StartDate end) as StartDate,  

(Case 
    when @EndDate is null   
        then @NewEndDate
    when (@EndDate>@NewEndDate and @Startdate < @NewEndDate)
        then @NewEndDate
    when (@EndDate>@NewEndDate and @Startdate > @NewEndDate)
        then @NewEndDate
    when (@EndDate<@NewEndDate and @NewStartDate > @EndDate)
        then @NewEndDate
    else @EndDate end) as EndDate

Distrubution logic

Answer 4

Try this. This method will determine if (two) date spans are overlapping, regardless of the ordering of the method's input arguments. This can also be used with more than two date spans, by individually checking each date span combination (ex. with 3 date spans, run span1 against span2, span2 against span3, and span1 against span3):

public static class HelperFunctions
{
    public static bool AreSpansOverlapping(Tuple<DateTime,DateTime> span1, Tuple<DateTime,DateTime> span2, bool includeEndPoints)
    {
        if (span1 == null || span2 == null)
        {
            return false;
        }
        else if ((new DateTime[] { span1.Item1, span1.Item2, span2.Item1, span2.Item2 }).Any(v => v == DateTime.MinValue))
        {
            return false;
        }
        else
        {
            if (span1.Item1 > span1.Item2)
            {
                span1 = new Tuple<DateTime, DateTime>(span1.Item2, span1.Item1);
            }
            if (span2.Item1 > span2.Item2)
            {
                span2 = new Tuple<DateTime, DateTime>(span2.Item2, span2.Item1);
            }

            if (includeEndPoints)
            {
                return 
                ((
                    (span1.Item1 <= span2.Item1 && span1.Item2 >= span2.Item1) 
                    || (span1.Item1 <= span2.Item2 && span1.Item2 >= span2.Item2)
                ) || (
                    (span2.Item1 <= span1.Item1 && span2.Item2 >= span1.Item1) 
                    || (span2.Item1 <= span1.Item2 && span2.Item2 >= span1.Item2)
                ));
            }
            else
            {
                return 
                ((
                    (span1.Item1 < span2.Item1 && span1.Item2 > span2.Item1) 
                    || (span1.Item1 < span2.Item2 && span1.Item2 > span2.Item2)
                ) || (
                    (span2.Item1 < span1.Item1 && span2.Item2 > span1.Item1) 
                    || (span2.Item1 < span1.Item2 && span2.Item2 > span1.Item2)
                ) || (
                    span1.Item1 == span2.Item1 && span1.Item2 == span2.Item2
                ));
            }
        }
    }
}

Test:

static void Main(string[] args)
{  
    Random r = new Random();

    DateTime d1;
    DateTime d2;
    DateTime d3;
    DateTime d4;

    for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
    {
        d1 = new DateTime(2012,1, r.Next(1,31));
        d2 = new DateTime(2012,1, r.Next(1,31));
        d3 = new DateTime(2012,1, r.Next(1,31));
        d4 = new DateTime(2012,1, r.Next(1,31));

        Console.WriteLine("span1 = " + d1.ToShortDateString() + " to " + d2.ToShortDateString());
        Console.WriteLine("span2 = " + d3.ToShortDateString() + " to " + d4.ToShortDateString());
        Console.Write("\t");
        Console.WriteLine(HelperFunctions.AreSpansOverlapping(
            new Tuple<DateTime, DateTime>(d1, d2),
            new Tuple<DateTime, DateTime>(d3, d4),
            true    //or use False, to ignore span's endpoints
            ).ToString());
        Console.WriteLine();
    }

    Console.WriteLine("COMPLETE");
    System.Console.ReadKey();
}

Answer 5

public class ConcreteClassModel : BaseModel
{
... rest of class

public bool InersectsWith(ConcreteClassModel crm)
    {
        return !(this.StartDateDT > crm.EndDateDT || this.EndDateDT < crm.StartDateDT);
    }
}

[TestClass]
public class ConcreteClassTest
{
    [TestMethod]
    public void TestConcreteClass_IntersectsWith()
    {
        var sutPeriod = new ConcreteClassModel() { StartDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 02, 01), EndDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 02, 29) };

        var periodBeforeSutPeriod = new ConcreteClassModel() { StartDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 01, 01), EndDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 01, 31) };
        var periodWithEndInsideSutPeriod = new ConcreteClassModel() { StartDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 01, 10), EndDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 02, 10) };
        var periodSameAsSutPeriod = new ConcreteClassModel() { StartDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 02, 01), EndDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 02, 29) };

        var periodWithEndDaySameAsStartDaySutPeriod = new ConcreteClassModel() { StartDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 01, 01), EndDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 02, 01) };
        var periodWithStartDaySameAsEndDaySutPeriod = new ConcreteClassModel() { StartDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 02, 29), EndDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 03, 31) };
        var periodEnclosingSutPeriod = new ConcreteClassModel() { StartDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 01, 01), EndDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 03, 31) };

        var periodWithinSutPeriod = new ConcreteClassModel() { StartDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 02, 010), EndDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 02, 20) };
        var periodWithStartInsideSutPeriod = new ConcreteClassModel() { StartDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 02, 10), EndDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 03, 10) };
        var periodAfterSutPeriod = new ConcreteClassModel() { StartDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 03, 01), EndDateDT = new DateTime(2016, 03, 31) };

        Assert.IsFalse(sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodBeforeSutPeriod), "sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodBeforeSutPeriod) should be false");
        Assert.IsTrue(sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodWithEndInsideSutPeriod), "sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodEndInsideSutPeriod)should be true");
        Assert.IsTrue(sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodSameAsSutPeriod), "sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodSameAsSutPeriod) should be true");

        Assert.IsTrue(sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodWithEndDaySameAsStartDaySutPeriod), "sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodWithEndDaySameAsStartDaySutPeriod) should be true");
        Assert.IsTrue(sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodWithStartDaySameAsEndDaySutPeriod), "sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodWithStartDaySameAsEndDaySutPeriod) should be true");
        Assert.IsTrue(sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodEnclosingSutPeriod), "sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodEnclosingSutPeriod) should be true");

        Assert.IsTrue(sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodWithinSutPeriod), "sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodWithinSutPeriod) should be true");
        Assert.IsTrue(sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodWithStartInsideSutPeriod), "sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodStartInsideSutPeriod) should be true");
        Assert.IsFalse(sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodAfterSutPeriod), "sutPeriod.InersectsWith(periodAfterSutPeriod) should be false");
    }
}

Thanks for the above answers which help me code the above for an MVC project.

Note StartDateDT and EndDateDT are dateTime types

Answer 6

This code checks if two intervals overlap.

---------|---|
---|---|                > FALSE
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-------|---|
---|---|                > FALSE
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
------|---|
---|---|                > TRUE
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
---|---|
---|--|                 > TRUE
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
----|---|
---|-----|              > TRUE
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
---|---|
----|-|                 > TRUE
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
---|---|
----|--|                > TRUE
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
---|---|
---|---|                > TRUE
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
---|---|
----|---|               > TRUE
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
---|---|
-------|---|            > FALSE
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
---|---|
--------|---|           > FALSE

Algorithm:

x1 < y2
and
x2 > y1

example 12:00 - 12:30 is not overlapping with 12:30 13:00