How do I calculate parking rates over several days when rates are specified daily?

Question

I have to calculate total billable amounts for card holders, for card based access to car parks. My rate structure looks like this. Each zone in a car park will have a prioritized list of these prices.

public partial class HourlyPrice
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public int DayId { get; set; }
    public DateTime StartTime { get; set; }
    public DateTime EndTime { get; set; }
    public int MinHour { get; set; }
    public int MaxHour { get; set; }
    public decimal Price { get; set; }
}

DayId allows for e.g. 'free on Sundays from 13h00'. MinNour and 'MaxHour' allow for 0 to 2 hours is free, where 5 to 6 hours costs R11.00. StartTime and EndTime allow for 'after 18h00 costs R7.00, flat rate'.

My concern is where no multi-day price is specified. When a car enters under one price structure on one day, and exits under another on another day. This looks to me like I will have to sequentially visit each hour parked by the vehicle and accumulate the amount due. This seems a very expensive way of doing things.

Any advice on such an endevour would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I think this library should solve all your problems:

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/168662/Time-Period-Library-for-NET