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9.3

Strange custom scheduler data structure; creative / efficient solution desired

Asked by peh803 in MS SQL Server, Active Server Pages (ASP)

Tags: T-SQL and / or classic ASP, n/a

We have a (poorly written) application scheduling feature in our application that is presenting some interesting issues.  A resource's availability is persisted in our database as follows:

Date                |   Availability
11/30/2008     |   XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXAAAAAAAAAXXXXXAAAAAAAAAAAAAXXXXXXXAAAAAAAAAAAAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
12/01/2008     |   XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXAAAAAAAAAAAAAAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXAAAAAAAAAAA
12/04/2008     |   XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
.... etc.

There's an ID field so we know which resource the "Availability" string applies to.  Here's the basic thought process behind how this thing works:

-- Each resource has an availability string on dates when he / she is available.  If no record is found for a resource on a given date, the resource is not available at all that day
-- The "Availability" string is 96 characters, each representing a 15-minute increment of the day.  Accordingly, the first character shows the resource's availability between 00:00 and 00:15, and the last character shows the resource's availability between 23:45 and 00:00 of the following day.  

I'm looking for a way to quickly / efficiently be able to select resources that are available for a given date or date range at a given time or time range.  For example, "Show me all resources available between 6:00 AM and 8:00 AM for the week of 12/13 through 12/20."

Obviously, this very strange way of persisting availability makes this quite a challenge.  

I'm looking for efficient, creative ways to solve that problem -- high level ideas or concepts are welcome... Not necessarily looking for someone to do all the work for me -- just to recommend some ideas that I may not have thought of.  

The application is classic ASP, so I could do this using ASP after the availability strings are found for the requested date range(s), but I'm thinking that perhaps there's a better way to do this using T-SQL ?

Thank you in advance for any assistance.

Regards,
Phil / peh803
[+][-]12/06/08 01:15 PM, ID: 23113659Accepted Solution

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Zones: MS SQL Server, Active Server Pages (ASP)
Tags: T-SQL and / or classic ASP, n/a
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Solution Provided By: adamsjs
Participating Experts: 1
Solution Grade: A
 
[+][-]12/06/08 05:29 PM, ID: 23114373Author Comment

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[+][-]12/13/08 05:49 AM, ID: 23163905Author Comment

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