How do I loop through a date range?

user_3435 0
Viewed 200800

I'm not even sure how to do this without using some horrible for loop/counter type solution. Here's the problem:

I'm given two dates, a start date and an end date and on a specified interval I need to take some action. For example: for every date between 3/10/2009 on every third day until 3/26/2009 I need to create an entry in a List. So my inputs would be:

DateTime StartDate = "3/10/2009";
DateTime EndDate = "3/26/2009";
int DayInterval = 3;

and my output would be a list that has the following dates:

3/13/2009 3/16/2009 3/19/2009 3/22/2009 3/25/2009

So how the heck would I do something like this? I thought about using a for loop that would iterate between every day in the range with a separate counter like so:

int count = 0;

for(int i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
     count++;
     if(count >= DayInterval)
     {
          //take action
          count = 0;
     }

}

But it seems like there could be a better way?

datetime asp.net loops c#
17 Answers

1 Year later, may it help someone,

This version includes a predicate, to be more flexible.

Usage

var today = DateTime.UtcNow;
var birthday = new DateTime(2018, 01, 01);

Daily to my birthday

var toBirthday = today.RangeTo(birthday);

Monthly to my birthday, Step 2 months

var toBirthday = today.RangeTo(birthday, x => x.AddMonths(2));

Yearly to my birthday

var toBirthday = today.RangeTo(birthday, x => x.AddYears(1));

Use RangeFrom instead

// same result
var fromToday = birthday.RangeFrom(today);
var toBirthday = today.RangeTo(birthday);

Implementation

public static class DateTimeExtensions 
{

    public static IEnumerable<DateTime> RangeTo(this DateTime from, DateTime to, Func<DateTime, DateTime> step = null)
    {
        if (step == null)
        {
            step = x => x.AddDays(1);
        }

        while (from < to)
        {
            yield return from;
            from = step(from);
        }
    }

    public static IEnumerable<DateTime> RangeFrom(this DateTime to, DateTime from, Func<DateTime, DateTime> step = null)
    {
        return from.RangeTo(to, step);
    }
}

Extras

You could throw an Exception if the fromDate > toDate, but I prefer to return an empty range instead []

user_11044020

Here are my 2 cents in 2020.

Enumerable.Range(0, (endDate - startDate).Days + 1)
.ToList()
.Select(a => startDate.AddDays(a));
user_4872910

Iterate every 15 minutes

DateTime startDate = DateTime.Parse("2018-06-24 06:00");
        DateTime endDate = DateTime.Parse("2018-06-24 11:45");

        while (startDate.AddMinutes(15) <= endDate)
        {

            Console.WriteLine(startDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm"));
            startDate = startDate.AddMinutes(15);
        }
user_59630570

@jacob-sobus and @mquander and @Yogurt not exactly correct.. If I need the next day I wait 00:00 time mostly

    public static IEnumerable<DateTime> EachDay(DateTime from, DateTime thru)
    {
        for (var day = from.Date; day.Date <= thru.Date; day = day.NextDay())
            yield return day;
    }

    public static IEnumerable<DateTime> EachMonth(DateTime from, DateTime thru)
    {
        for (var month = from.Date; month.Date <= thru.Date || month.Year == thru.Year && month.Month == thru.Month; month = month.NextMonth())
            yield return month;
    }

    public static IEnumerable<DateTime> EachYear(DateTime from, DateTime thru)
    {
        for (var year = from.Date; year.Date <= thru.Date || year.Year == thru.Year; year = year.NextYear())
            yield return year;
    }

    public static DateTime NextDay(this DateTime date)
    {
        return date.AddTicks(TimeSpan.TicksPerDay - date.TimeOfDay.Ticks);
    }

    public static DateTime NextMonth(this DateTime date)
    {
        return date.AddTicks(TimeSpan.TicksPerDay * DateTime.DaysInMonth(date.Year, date.Month) - (date.TimeOfDay.Ticks + TimeSpan.TicksPerDay * (date.Day - 1)));
    }

    public static DateTime NextYear(this DateTime date)
    {
        var yearTicks = (new DateTime(date.Year + 1, 1, 1) - new DateTime(date.Year, 1, 1)).Ticks;
        var ticks = (date - new DateTime(date.Year, 1, 1)).Ticks;
        return date.AddTicks(yearTicks - ticks);
    }

    public static IEnumerable<DateTime> EachDayTo(this DateTime dateFrom, DateTime dateTo)
    {
        return EachDay(dateFrom, dateTo);
    }

    public static IEnumerable<DateTime> EachMonthTo(this DateTime dateFrom, DateTime dateTo)
    {
        return EachMonth(dateFrom, dateTo);
    }

    public static IEnumerable<DateTime> EachYearTo(this DateTime dateFrom, DateTime dateTo)
    {
        return EachYear(dateFrom, dateTo);
    }
user_20115080

If you convert your dates to OADate you can loop thru them as you would do with any double number.

DateTime startDate = new DateTime(2022, 1, 1);
DateTime endDate = new DateTime(2022, 12, 31);

for (double loopDate = startDate.ToOADate(); loopDate <= endDate.ToOADate(); loopDate++)
{
    DateTime selectedDate;
    selectedDate = DateTime.FromOADate(loopDate);
}
user_54298540
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