Data structure for storing recurring events?

Question

I\'m looking for a data structure pattern for storing recurring events, but everything I came up with would result in a high number of special case handling or user input an

Answer 1

Here is my take -- please let me know if I am missing anything:

Based on the Outlook Recurrence options, you have a table with the regular necessary fields:

FieldName       DataType      Sample Data
ID              int           primary key
EventID         int           foreign key (to EventID from Event Table)
StartTime       DateTime      8:00 AM
EndTime         DateTime      8:30 AM
Duration        int           30 (minutes)
StartDate       DateTime      01/25/2014
EndBy           DateTime      01/25/2024
NoEndDate       bit           False
NumOccurrences  int           10
RecurrenceType  int           ****See below for instructions on how to use these last 6 fields  
Int1            int           
Int2            int
Int3            int
String1         nvarchar(50)
IntYears        int

Here is where the magic happens. this logic only requires 4 integers and one string.

The month of year (1 = Jan, 12 = Dec), 
The day of the month (1 = the 1st, 31 = 31st), 
Day of the week (0 = Sunday, 1=Monday, 6= Saturday), 
Week of the month (1 = first, 4 = forth, 5 = last),
Yearly reocurrence ( 1=1,2=2)   
When multiple days can be selected I use a comma delimited string (1,3,5 = Monday, Wed, Friday)

I enter the 3 integers in the order they appear in the outlook Appointment Recurrence scheduler, this saves extra feilds, logic, annoyance. *If you open to the outlook appt scheduler, this will be slightly easier to follow:

The RecurrenceType field can be any of the 7 following choices 

(There are 2 options for daily, Monthly and Yearly, and one option for weekly):

10 = Daily (Every `Int1` day(s) )    
            Every     4  day(s)
11 = Daily (Every Weekday)  -- no variables needed 
            Every Weekday (MTWTF)
20 = Weekly (Recur every `Int1` week(s) on: `String1`
             Recur every     3  week(s) on  Monday, Wednesday, Friday   
(`String1` will be a list of days selected (0=Sunday, 1=Monday, 2=Tuesday... 7=Saturday) so for (Mon, Wed, Fri) String1 would hold "1,3,5". You would parse this on the code side to pull the actual days.)
30 = Monthly (Day `Int1` of every `int2' month(s) 
              Day    28  of every     2  month(s)
31 = Monthly (The `Int1`  `Int2` of every `Int3` month(s) 
              The forth Tuesday  of every     1  month(s)
40 = Yearly (Recur every `intYears` year(s) On `Int1` `Int2`) -- 
             Recur every         1  year(s) on   Jan   28th
41 = Yearly (Recur every `intYears` year(s) on the `Int1` `Int2` of `Int3`) -- 
             Recur every         1  year(s) on the forth Tuesday of January

The code to pull or save the reocurrence becomes fairly simple

if (RecurrenceType = 10 )
    Every `int1` days
if (RecurrenceType = 11)
    Every Weekday
if (RecurrenceType = 20)
    Every `int1 weeks on 
    parse `string1` and populate checkboxes for Mon, Tues, ...
if (RecurrenceType = 30)
    `int1 day of every `int2` month

etc...

I hope I am explaining this thoroughly enough. Let me know if anything is unclear or if it will not work. I am building this for a current app. Thanks to all.