Question

Need to calculate number of business days, excluding weekends and holidays

Asked by: MTaft

I am writing an On-Time Shipments report and have to determine how many business days have lapsed between the requested-date and the shipped-date, minus weekends and holidays.

I have a holiday table with all holidays entered for the next several years.  Therefore, I can't use a piece of code that hardcodes the holidays in it (like this one:  http://www.kenhamady.com/form01.html).

Does anybody have a formula I can use?  The link that has answered this frequent question on EE is broken so that's no help (http://support.businessobjects.com/communityCS/TechnicalPapers/cr_business_days_hours.zip.asp).

Thanks much,
MTaft

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-08-12 at 13:31:25ID24647909
Tags

crystal reports

Topic

Crystal Reports Software

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
12

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. holidays
    Hello experts. I have a short code that calculates business days for a field when a button is clicked. Is there a way to get it to evaluate holidays as well. dt=Cdat(Today()) Do While cntr<5 dt = dt+1 If Weekday(dt)>1 And Weekday(dt)<7 The...
  2. Excluding Holidays
    I have the following code that works well for excluding weekends, thanks to the experts here. (datediff(dd,a.created_date, @Today) - ((datediff(ww,a.created_date, @Today)*2))) > 2 Now I need to exclude holidays as well. Our databse has a table for Holidays. What's the b...
  3. Exclude weekends and holidays
    I can create the basic days difference calculation. I need a formula to calculate the number of days between 2 dates (dd/mm/yyyy) excluding weekends and holidays. Thank you
  4. business days between to dates excluding saturdays,sun…
    how display business days between two dates excluding saturdays,sundays and bank holidays.

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: PCIRichardPosted on 2009-08-12 at 14:25:23ID: 25083201

To count weekdays only, use the following formula:

    DateDiff ("d", {due_date}, {despatch_date}) -
     DateDiff ("ww", {due_date}, {despatch_date}, crSaturday) -
     DateDiff ("ww", {due_date}, {despatch_date}, crSunday)

I'll thik about the holidays....

 

by: mlmccPosted on 2009-08-12 at 16:31:57ID: 25084193

Is this needed for the main report?

mlmcc

 

by: James0628Posted on 2009-08-12 at 20:22:06ID: 25085249

You should be able to create a subreport that reads your holiday table and saves the dates in a shared Holidays array variable.  Then you could use the formula on Ken's Web site.

 James

 

by: MTaftPosted on 2009-08-13 at 06:06:10ID: 25087706

Mlmcc, yes.

James, I've never used arrays in CR.  Can you please provide an example of how this is done?

Thank you very much, to all 3 of you, for your time.

 

by: mlmccPosted on 2009-08-13 at 08:06:20ID: 25089161

Basic idea of the formula.  James was thinking along the same basic lines.

In the main report
Right click the report header left margin
Click INSERT SECTION BELOW
Repeat
You should now have
RHa, RHb, RHc

In RHa
WhilePrintingRecords;
Shared DateVar Array Holidays;
""

In RHb add the subreport
In the subreport details add a formula
WhilePrintingRecords;
Shared DateVar Array Holidays;
Local NumberVar CurrentSize;
CurrentSize := UBound(Holidays);
ReDim Preserve Holidays[CurrentSize+1];
Holidays[CurrentSize+1] := {DateField};
""

Use RHc for the main report report header

mlmcc

 

by: James0628Posted on 2009-08-13 at 17:27:42ID: 25094409

Yep, he's right.  That's the basic idea.  When the subreport finishes, the Holidays array should have all of the dates from your holiday table in it, and since it's a shared variable, you can use it in formulas in the main report.  The only remaining detail is that you have to make sure that you also declare the Holidays array as Shared in your formula to calculate the business days, meaning that you'll have to change the declaration in the formula on Ken Hamady's site.  Otherwise, CR will create a new Holidays array (separate from the one in the subreport) and you won't get the dates from your table.

 James

 

by: mlmccPosted on 2009-08-13 at 17:33:26ID: 25094434

Good point.

I was initially thinking of using the subreport to test the date for the holiday.  Your idea of loading the array is better.

mlmcc

 

by: James0628Posted on 2009-08-13 at 17:47:23ID: 25094488

I was wondering why you asked if this was for the main report.  I thought you might be thinking of using a subreport too, but I didn't see why it mattered if you were going to calculate the days in the main report or a subreport.  I get it now.  For my idea it wouldn't matter, but for yours it would.

 James

 

by: mlmccPosted on 2009-08-13 at 17:53:32ID: 25094512

With my idea it would have required nested subreports which of course aren't supported.

mlmcc

 

by: MTaftPosted on 2009-08-14 at 05:54:23ID: 25097427

James0628, mlmcc, I believe I understand what you're saying.  I will try to get this into my report and tested over the weekend.  Thanks so much for your help.  I will let you know early next week if I need more help or if I was successful.

 

by: MTaftPosted on 2009-08-14 at 12:22:49ID: 25101464

This worked splendidly.  Thank you both for helping me.  

 

by: James0628Posted on 2009-08-15 at 16:28:06ID: 25107290

You're welcome.  Glad I could help.

 James

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...