Find date range overlaps within the same table, for specific user MySQL

Question

Here is the first part: Overlapping cars per user…

SQLFiddle – correlated Query and Join Query

Second part – more than one user in one car at the same time: SQLFiddle – correlated Query and Join Query. Query below…

I use the correlated queries:

You will likely need indexes on userid and ‘car’. However – please check the ‘explain plan’ to see how it mysql is accessing the data. And just try it 🙂

Overlapping cars per user

The query:

SELECT `allCars`.`userid`  AS `allCars_userid`, 
       `allCars`.`car`     AS `allCars_car`, 
       `allCars`.`From`    AS `allCars_From`, 
       `allCars`.`To`      AS `allCars_To`,
       `allCars`.`tableid` AS `allCars_id`
 FROM  
       `cars` AS `allCars`
 WHERE 
     EXISTS  
         (SELECT 1       
          FROM `cars` AS `overlapCar`            
          WHERE 
               `allCars`.`userid` = `overlapCar`.`userid` 
           AND `allCars`.`tableid` <> `overlapCar`.`tableid`          
           AND NOT (   `allCars`.`From`  >= `overlapCar`.`To`      /* starts after outer ends  */  
                    OR `allCars`.`To`    <= `overlapCar`.`From`))  /* ends before outer starts */
 ORDER BY
        `allCars`.`userid`, 
        `allCars`.`From`, 
        `allCars`.`car`;

The results:

allCars_userid  allCars_car  allCars_From  allCars_To  allCars_id  
--------------  -----------  ------------  ----------  ------------
             1  Navara       2015-03-01    2015-03-31             3
             1  GTR          2015-03-28    2015-04-30             4
             1  Skyline      2015-04-29    2015-05-31             9
             2  Aygo         2015-03-01    2015-03-31             7
             2  206          2015-03-29    2015-04-30             8
             2  Skyline      2015-04-29    2015-05-31            10

Why it works? or How I think about it:

I use the correlated query so I don’t have duplicates to deal with and it is probably the easiest to understand for me. There are other ways of expressing the query. Each has advantages and drawbacks. I want something I can easily understand.

Requirement: For each user ensure that they don’t have two or more cars at the same time.

So, for each user record (AllCars) check the complete table (overlapCar) to see if you can find a different record that overlaps for the time of the current record. If we find one then select the current record we are checking (in allCars).

Therefore the overlap check is:

the allCars userid and the overLap userid must be the same
the allCars car record and the overlap car record must be different
the allCars time range and the overLap time range must overlap.

The time range check:

Instead of checking for overlapping times use positive tests. The easiest approach, is to check it doesn’t overlap, and apply a NOT to it.

One car with More than One User at the same time…

The query:

SELECT  `allCars`.`car`     AS `allCars_car`,
        `allCars`.`userid`  AS `allCars_userid`,  
        `allCars`.`From`    AS `allCars_From`, 
        `allCars`.`To`      AS `allCars_To`, 
        `allCars`.`tableid` AS `allCars_id`
        
 FROM  
       `cars` AS `allCars`
 WHERE 
     EXISTS  
        (SELECT 1       
         FROM `cars` AS `overlapUser`            
         WHERE 
              `allCars`.`car` = `overlapUser`.`car` 
          AND `allCars`.`tableid` <> `overlapUser`.`tableid`          
          AND NOT (    `allCars`.`From`  >= `overlapUser`.`To`       /* starts after outer ends  */  
                   OR  `allCars`.`To`    <= `overlapUser`.`From`))  /* ends before outer starts */
 ORDER BY
        `allCars`.`car`,      
        `allCars`.`userid`, 
        `allCars`.`From`;

The results:

allCars_car  allCars_userid  allCars_From  allCars_To    allCars_id  
-----------  --------------  ------------  ----------  ------------
Skyline                   1  2015-04-29    2015-05-31             9
Skyline                   2  2015-04-29    2015-05-31            10

Edit:

In view of the comments, by @philipxy , about time ranges needing ‘greater than or equal to’ checks I have updated the code here. I havn’t changed the SQLFiddles.

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