How to calculate number of leap years between two years in C#

Question

Is there a better way to calculate number of leap years between two years. Assuming I have start date and end date.

I have my code, but I think there should be more elegant way.

calling code:

var numberOfLeapYears = NumberOfLeapYears(startDate.Year + 1, endDate.Year - 1);

function itself:

    private static int NumberOfLeapYears(int startYear, int endYear)
    {
        var counter = 0;

        for (var year = startYear; year <= endYear; year++)
            counter += DateTime.IsLeapYear(year) ? 1 : 0;

        return counter;
    }

So if I have startDate = "10/16/2006" and endDate = "4/18/2004" I should only have 1 leap year (2000) in result. Another words startDate's Year and endDate's year should not be calculated, only years in between.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer 1

You can count it using analytic approach. A year is a leap year if it can be divided by 4, but can't be divided by 100, except of case when it can be divided by 400. Assuming that you can count such number by following code:

static int LeapYearsBetween(int start, int end)
{
    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Assert(start < end);
    return LeapYearsBefore(end) - LeapYearsBefore(start + 1);
}

static int LeapYearsBefore(int year)
{
    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Assert(year > 0);
    year--;
    return (year / 4) - (year / 100) + (year / 400);
}

Some kind of math magic. It is much effective solution than using LINQ.

Answer 2

You can do it with LINQ simply as bellow:

var leepYears = Enumerable.Range(startYear, endYear - startYear + 1)
                              .Count(x => DateTime.IsLeapYear(x));