Question

Given a start date, how do I find the larger and nearest start date from a list?

Here’s my code but my way of getting the nearest one seems to be incorrect:

Activity oActivityNearestLarger = null;

List<Activity> oActivityByStartDateList = ClassForDBCalls.ActivityLISTByOutingID(iOutingID)
    .OrderBy(a => a.StartDate)
    .ToList();

long lLeastTicksDifference = 0; // initialize
int iIndexOfTheNearestLargerActivity = 0;

for (int i = 0; i < oActivityByStartDateList.Count; i++)
{
    // the start of the loop, set the lRecordTicksDifference
    if (i == 0)
    {
        lLeastTicksDifference = Math.Abs(oActivityByStartDateList[0].StartDate.Value.Subtract(dtStartDate).Ticks);
    }

    long lCurrentTicksDifference = Math.Abs(oActivityByStartDateList[i].StartDate.Value.Subtract(dtStartDate).Ticks);

    // get the larger, closest start datetime in the activities for the outing
    if (oActivityByStartDateList[i].StartDate > dtStartDate)
    {
        //  is the current activity startdate closer 
        //  to the to be added startdate (is it the nearest to the datetime being added?)
        if (lCurrentTicksDifference <= lLeastTicksDifference)
        {
            // if it has the least difference (meaning closer) store it for comparison in the next iteration
            lLeastTicksDifference = lCurrentTicksDifference;

            oActivityNearestLarger = oActivityByStartDateList[i];

            // set the index to be used to determine the Activity previous to it
            iIndexOfTheNearestLargerActivity = i;
        }
    }
}

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Will this not do it?

Activity nearestToStart = 
    lassForDBCalls.ActivityLISTByOutingID(iOutingID)
    .OrderBy(a => a.StartDate)
    .FirstOrDefault(a => a.StartDate >= myStartDate)

Or am I missing something?

Sorry, just saw how dumb that first attempt was

Activity nearestToStart = 
    lassForDBCalls.ActivityLISTByOutingID(iOutingID)
    .Where(a => a.StartDate >= myStartDate)
    .OrderBy(a => a.StartDate)
    .FirstOrDefault()