Determine Whether Two Date Ranges Overlap

Question

Given two date ranges, what is the simplest or most efficient way to determine whether the two date ranges overlap?

As an example, suppose we have ranges denoted by DateTime variables StartDate1 to EndDate1 and StartDate2 to EndDate2.

Answer 1

I believe that it is sufficient to say that the two ranges overlap if:

(StartDate1 <= EndDate2) and (StartDate2 <= EndDate1)

Answer 2

Here is a generic method that can be usefull locally.

    // Takes a list and returns all records that have overlapping time ranges.
    public static IEnumerable<T> GetOverlappedTimes<T>(IEnumerable<T> list, Func<T, bool> filter, Func<T,DateTime> start, Func<T, DateTime> end)
    {
        // Selects all records that match filter() on left side and returns all records on right side that overlap.
        var overlap = from t1 in list
                      where filter(t1)
                      from t2 in list
                      where !object.Equals(t1, t2) // Don't match the same record on right side.
                      let in1 = start(t1)
                      let out1 = end(t1)
                      let in2 = start(t2)
                      let out2 = end(t2)
                      where in1 <= out2 && out1 >= in2
                      let totover = GetMins(in1, out1, in2, out2)
                      select t2;

        return overlap;
    }

    public static void TestOverlap()
    {
        var tl1 = new TempTimeEntry() { ID = 1, Name = "Bill", In = "1/1/08 1:00pm".ToDate(), Out = "1/1/08 4:00pm".ToDate() };
        var tl2 = new TempTimeEntry() { ID = 2, Name = "John", In = "1/1/08 5:00pm".ToDate(), Out = "1/1/08 6:00pm".ToDate() };
        var tl3 = new TempTimeEntry() { ID = 3, Name = "Lisa", In = "1/1/08 7:00pm".ToDate(), Out = "1/1/08 9:00pm".ToDate() };
        var tl4 = new TempTimeEntry() { ID = 4, Name = "Joe", In = "1/1/08 3:00pm".ToDate(), Out = "1/1/08 8:00pm".ToDate() };
        var tl5 = new TempTimeEntry() { ID = 1, Name = "Bill", In = "1/1/08 8:01pm".ToDate(), Out = "1/1/08 8:00pm".ToDate() };
        var list = new List<TempTimeEntry>() { tl1, tl2, tl3, tl4, tl5 };
        var overlap = GetOverlappedTimes(list, (TempTimeEntry t1)=>t1.ID==1, (TempTimeEntry tIn) => tIn.In, (TempTimeEntry tOut) => tOut.Out);

        Console.WriteLine("\nRecords overlap:");
        foreach (var tl in overlap)
            Console.WriteLine("Name:{0} T1In:{1} T1Out:{2}", tl.Name, tl.In, tl.Out);
        Console.WriteLine("Done");

        /*  Output:
            Records overlap:
            Name:Joe T1In:1/1/2008 3:00:00 PM T1Out:1/1/2008 8:00:00 PM
            Name:Lisa T1In:1/1/2008 7:00:00 PM T1Out:1/1/2008 9:00:00 PM
            Done
         */
    }

Answer 3

Using Java util.Date, here what I did.

    public static boolean checkTimeOverlaps(Date startDate1, Date endDate1, Date startDate2, Date endDate2)
    {
        if (startDate1 == null || endDate1 == null || startDate2 == null || endDate2 == null)
           return false;

        if ((startDate1.getTime() <= endDate2.getTime()) && (startDate2.getTime() <= endDate1.getTime()))
           return true;

        return false;
    }

Answer 4

This was my javascript solution with moment.js:

// Current row dates
var dateStart = moment("2014-08-01", "YYYY-MM-DD");
var dateEnd = moment("2014-08-30", "YYYY-MM-DD");

// Check with dates above
var rangeUsedStart = moment("2014-08-02", "YYYY-MM-DD");
var rangeUsedEnd = moment("2014-08-015", "YYYY-MM-DD");

// Range covers other ?
if((dateStart <= rangeUsedStart) && (rangeUsedEnd <= dateEnd)) {
    return false;
}
// Range intersects with other start ?
if((dateStart <= rangeUsedStart) && (rangeUsedStart <= dateEnd)) {
    return false;
}
// Range intersects with other end ?
if((dateStart <= rangeUsedEnd) && (rangeUsedEnd <= dateEnd)) {
    return false;
}

// All good
return true;

Answer 5

Split the problem into cases then handle each case.

The situation 'two date ranges intersect' is covered by two cases - the first date range starts within the second, or the second date range starts within the first.

Answer 6

All the solutions that check a multitude of conditions based on where the ranges are in relation to one another can be greatly simplified by just ensuring that a specific range starts earlier! You ensure that the first range starts earlier (or at the same time) by swapping the ranges if necessary up front.

Then, you can detect overlap if the other range start is less than or equal to the first range end (if ranges are inclusive, containing both the start and end times) or less than (if ranges are inclusive of start and exclusive of end).

Assuming inclusive at both ends, there's only four possibilities of which one is a non-overlap:

|----------------------|        range 1
|--->                           range 2 overlap
 |--->                          range 2 overlap
                       |--->    range 2 overlap
                        |--->   range 2 no overlap

The endpoint of the range 2 doesn't enter into it. So, in pseudo-code:

def doesOverlap (r1, r2):
    if r1.s > r2.s:
        swap r1, r2
    if r2.s > r1.e:
        return false
    return true

This could be simplified even more into:

def doesOverlap (r1, r2):
    if r1.s > r2.s:
        swap r1, r2
    return r2.s <= r1.e

If the ranges are inclusive at the start and exclusive at the end, you just have to replace > with >= in the second if statement (for the first code segment: in the second code segment, you'd use < rather than <=):

|----------------------|        range 1
|--->                           range 2 overlap
 |--->                          range 2 overlap
                       |--->    range 2 no overlap
                        |--->   range 2 no overlap

You greatly limit the number of checks you have to make because you remove half of the problem space early by ensuring range 1 never starts after range 2.