Checking if parsed date is within a date range

Question

So I am using a scripting language with c++-like syntax, and I am trying to think of the best way to check if a date is within range. The problem I am running into is that if the current day is in a new month, the check is failing.

Here is what my code looks like:

if(iMonth >= iStartMonth && iMonth <= iEndMonth)
{
    if(iDay >= iStartDay && iDay <= iEndDay)
    {
        if(iYear >= iStartYear && iYear <= iEndYear)
        {
                bEnabled = true;
                return;

When I have something like this:

    Start date: 3 27 2010
    End Date: 4 15 2010
    Current Date: 3 31 2010

The day check fails because if (iDay <= iEndDay) does not pass. The scripting language doesn't have a lot of time related functions, and I can't compare timestamps because I'm allowing users to put like "03:27:2010" and "04:15:2010" as start/end dates in a config file. I'm assuming I am just not thinking straight and missing an easy fix.

Answer 1

You should really use boost::DateTime instead of attempting to rewrite the wheel (which when the wheel is a date/time framework it's not as trivial as it may seem). This only if the code you pasted is C++ and not your scripting language (it wasn't clear). Also may I suggest to use Lua instead? :)

---

Anyway the problem is here:

if(iDay >= iStartDay && iDay <= iEndDay)

You should only check this if iMonth == iStartMonth, and the same for the end month. Otherwise iDay = 31, iEndDay = 15 and 31 <= 15 will fail.

Also you should check for the year first, then the month, then the day.

Answer 2

You can convert all dates to a strings in YYYY-MM-DD format and then do lexicographical compares.