Question

I need to calculate the number of days between two dates (DateTime) but with a twist. I want to know how many days fall into each of the months that the two days span. Is there an easy way two do it?

Example:

I have start date 30/03/2011 and end date 05/04/2011 then the result should be something like:

var result = new Dictionary<DateTime, int>
             {
                { new DateTime(2011, 3, 1), 2 },
                { new DateTime(2011, 4, 1), 5 }
             };

Answer 1

You could try something like this:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

static class Program {

    // return dictionary tuple<year,month> -> number of days
    static Dictionary<Tuple<int, int>, int> GetNumberOfDays(DateTime start, DateTime end) {
        // assumes end > start
        Dictionary<Tuple<int, int>, int> ret = new Dictionary<Tuple<int, int>, int>();
        DateTime date = end;
        while (date > start) {
            if (date.Year == start.Year && date.Month == start.Month) {
                ret.Add(
                    Tuple.Create<int, int>(date.Year, date.Month),
                    (date - start).Days + 1);
                break;
            } else {
                ret.Add(
                    Tuple.Create<int, int>(date.Year, date.Month),
                    date.Day);
                date = new DateTime(date.Year, date.Month, 1).AddDays(-1);
            }
        }
        return ret;
    }

    static void Main(params string[] args) {
        var days = GetNumberOfDays(new DateTime(2011, 3, 1), new DateTime(2011, 4, 1));
        foreach (var m in days.Keys) {
            Console.WriteLine("{0}/{1} : {2} days", m.Item1, m.Item2, days[m]);
        }
    }

}