Algorithm problem!

[Techno]

Hi!

I guess im REALLLLY tired at the minute and will think this through tomorrow but its something that isnt going to make me go to bed easily!

OK:

I have a start time and end time
a user also enters a start time and end time

I want to see that if the user's entered start time and time conflicts with the set start time and end time.

how do I find this out?

I will have 2 DateTime objects for each date time set. One object will be the start time and the other the end time.

so i wanna check if the user entered their start/end time does NOT conflict with another start/end time.

how?

[jmcilhinney]

Define "conflict". Here's an example but it might not do what you want:

If (startTime2 >= startTime1 AndAlso startTime2 < endTime1) OrElse _
   (endTime2 > startTime1 AndAlso endTime2 <= endTime1) OrElse _
   (startTime2 <= startTime1 AndAlso endTime2 >= endTime1) Then
    MessageBox.Show("Intervals overlap.")
End If

[penagate]

Or even

if ((endTime1 > startTime1) && (endTime2 > startTime2) &&
    ((startTime2 >= endTime1) || (endTime2 <= startTime1)))
{
    // intervals do not overlap
}
else
{
    // overlap
}

[jmcilhinney]

Oops. C#, yeah... Nice penagate.

[Techno]

hehe thanks, i think that's pretty much what I had in mind

what i mean by conflict is basically the times collashing together

[Techno]

lol im sorry guys

just forgotten this completely.

right, im trying to save these times etc... in an XML file. BUT i want them ordered, in otherwords, I want each record to be stored sequentially on the date time

does that make sense?

so when a user enters a date/time, that is saved to the xml file
but when it is saving, it checks the xml nodes to see where it can fit in this new node to make sure that the times/dates do not collash

understand? :-s

how can I make this work?

open xml file
for each node
make date time object
if xmlNode DateTime object < the user set date/time

.. ??
end for each

[Techno]

im afraid that solution did not work!

[penagate]

In that case you are going to have to explain, clearly, what exactly you want, and why the solutions given don't work for you. What do you mean by "collashing" ?

[Techno]

as said before - to make sure that they do not overlap

so for example:

starttime1: 3.00 endtime1: 4.00
starttime2: 4.01 endtime2: 5.12
starttime3: 3.23 endtime3: 3:59

in that example, starttime3 will collash - because starttime1 and endtime1 fit in that range.

Basically no time should interfere with any other time, making sure that each time is more or less than the previous time but certainly making sure that they do not collide with each other.

take for example your daily routine

you may have several meetings but you have to make sure that you do not have 2 meetings at 1 time but to make sure one proceeds the next....

[penagate]

Put all your start times into one array and end times into another array.

Then you can check against all of them when adding a new one.

if (newEnd > newStart)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < startTimes.GetUpperBound(0); i++)
    {
        if (((newStart >= startTimes[i]) && (newStart <= endTimes[i])) ||
            ((newEnd >= startTimes[i]) && (newEnd <= endTimes[i])))
        {
            MessageBox.Show("Intervals overlap.");
        }
        else
        {
            // Add the node
        }
    }
}
else
{
    MessageBox.Show("Idiot, you can't finish before you start.");
}