Merge overlapping date intervals

Question

Is there a better way of merging overlapping date intervals?
The solution I came up with is so simple that now I wonder if someone else has a better idea of how this cou

Answer 1

Try this

;WITH T1 AS
(
    SELECT d1, d2, ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY (SELECT 0)) AS R
    FROM @T
), NUMS AS
(
    SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY (SELECT 0)) AS R
    FROM T1 A
    CROSS JOIN T1 B
    CROSS JOIN T1 C
), ONERANGE AS 
(
    SELECT DISTINCT DATEADD(DAY, ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY T1.R ORDER BY (SELECT 0)) - 1, T1.D1) AS ELEMENT
    FROM T1
    CROSS JOIN NUMS
    WHERE NUMS.R <= DATEDIFF(DAY, d1, d2) + 1
), SEQUENCE AS
(
    SELECT ELEMENT, DATEDIFF(DAY, '19000101', ELEMENT) - ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY ELEMENT) AS rownum
    FROM ONERANGE
)
SELECT MIN(ELEMENT) AS StartDate, MAX(ELEMENT) as EndDate
FROM SEQUENCE
GROUP BY rownum

The basic idea is to first unroll the existing data, so you get a separate row for each day. This is done in ONERANGE

Then, identify the relationship between how dates increment and the way the row numbers do. The difference remains constant within an existing range/island. As soon as you get to a new data island, the difference between them increases because the date increments by more than 1, while the row number increments by 1.