TimeBlock

A C# library for creating and managing time blocks.

Features

• Create time blocks that match specific dates and times, or ranges of dates and times.
• Use a variety of unit types, including seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, and years.
• Combine units to create complex time blocks, such as all times on weekdays between 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM.
• Check if a specific date and time matches a time block.
• Parse time block specifications from strings.

Usage

To use the TimeBlock library, you can either create a new TimeBlock object directly, or parse a time block specification from a string using the TimeBlockParser class.

// Create a TimeBlock object directly.

// Every 5 minutes
new Core.TimeBlock(
    seconds: AlwaysUnit.Value,
    minutes: IntervalUnit.From(5));

// Parse a time block specification from a string.
var timeBlock = TimeBlockParser.Parse("* * 12-14 Mon-Fri * *"); Every Mon-Fri between 1200-1400

Once you have a TimeBlock object, you can use the IsMatch() method to check if a specific date and time matches the time block.

// Check if the current date and time matches the weekday lunchtime time block.
bool isLunchtime = weekdayLunchtime.IsMatch(DateTime.Now);

TimeBlock specification format

The TimeBlock specification format is a sequence of 6 units, separated by spaces. The units are as follows:

• Seconds (0-59)
• Minutes (0-59)
• Hours (0-23)
• Days of the week (Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat or 0-6)
• Months of the year (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec or 1-12)
• Years 0-*

Each unit can be specified in one of the following ways:

• A single value, such as 30 for seconds or 12 for hours.
• A range of values, specified using a hyphen (-). For example, 15-20 represents the range of seconds from 15 to 20.
• A specific set of values, specified using a comma (,). For example, 5,10,15,20 represents the set of seconds {5, 10, 15, 20}.
• An interval unit, specified using a slash (/). For example, /5 represents every 5 seconds.

Here are some examples of TimeBlock specifications:

Spec	Explanation
* * * * * *	Matches all times.
/5 * * * * *	Matches every 5 seconds.
* 20 10 Sun Dec 1995	Matches the specific date and time of December 5, 1995 at 10:20 AM.
30-45 * * Mon,Tue,Fri * *	Matches all times between 30 and 45 seconds past the minute on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays.