How to combine overlapping time ranges (time ranges union)

Question

I have an array with several time ranges inside:

[Tue, 24 May 2011 08:00:00 CEST +02:00..Tue, 24 May 2011 13:00:00 CEST +02:00,
 Tue, 24 May 2011 16:30:00 CE         


        

Answer 1

You can do it by using multi_range gem.

Example 1:

ranges = [
  Time.parse('Tue, 24 May 2011 08:00:00 CEST +02:00..Tue')..Time.parse('24 May 2011 13:00:00 CEST +02:00'),
  Time.parse('Tue, 24 May 2011 16:30:00 CEST +02:00..Tue')..Time.parse('24 May 2011 18:00:00 CEST +02:00'),
  Time.parse('Tue, 24 May 2011 08:00:00 CEST +02:00..Tue')..Time.parse('24 May 2011 09:00:00 CEST +02:00'),
  Time.parse('Tue, 24 May 2011 15:30:00 CEST +02:00..Tue')..Time.parse('24 May 2011 18:00:00 CEST +02:00'),
]

MultiRange.new(ranges).merge_overlaps.ranges
# => [2011-05-24 08:00:00 +0800..2011-05-24 13:00:00 +0800, 2011-05-24 15:30:00 +0800..2011-05-24 18:00:00 +0800] 

Example 2:

ranges = [
  Time.parse('Tue, 24 May 2011 08:00:00 CEST +02:00')..Time.parse('Tue, 24 May 2011 13:00:00 CEST +02:00'),
  Time.parse('Tue, 24 May 2011 16:00:00 CEST +02:00')..Time.parse('Tue, 24 May 2011 18:00:00 CEST +02:00'),
]

MultiRange.new(ranges).merge_overlaps.ranges
# => [2011-05-24 08:00:00 +0800..2011-05-24 13:00:00 +0800, 2011-05-24 16:00:00 +0800..2011-05-24 18:00:00 +0800]