Algorithm to detect overlapping periods

There is a wonderful library with good reviews on CodeProject: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/168662/Time-Period-Library-for-NET

That library does a lot of work concerning overlap, intersecting them, etc. It's too big to copy/paste all of it, but I'll see which specific parts which can be useful to you.


Simple check to see if two time periods overlap:

bool overlap = a.start < b.end && b.start < a.end;

or in your code:

bool overlap = tStartA < tEndB && tStartB < tEndA;

(Use <= instead of < if you change your mind about wanting to say that two periods that just touch each other overlap.)