StoreHours

A very simple parser to parse text like

Mon-Fri:  9AM-5PM
Sat:      10AM-7PM
Sun:      closed

and build an internal data structure to enable possible formatting and queries.

This class is designed for situations where (1) you like to use a single text field in database to store open hours, and (2) you would like to be able to check whether the store opens for a certain time, or to make sure inputs are valid, or to display the hours in a format different from user input (for example, format the input in html to display on website).

Here is an example about how to use this class in rails. Suppose you have a model called "Store" with a text filed named normal_business_hours, you can add this validation method:

validate :normal_business_hours_must_be_in_valid_format
def normal_business_hours_must_be_in_valid_format
    hours_parser = ::StoreHours::StoreHours.new
    #check whether input is valid?
    success, error_message  = hours_parser.from_text(self.normal_business_hours)
    if !success
        #input is not valid
        errors.add(:normal_business_hours, error_message)
    end
end

Examples of valid input:

Mon: 8AM-12PM 2PM-6PM
Tue: 8:30AM-5:30PM
Wed-Fri: 9:00AM - 4:50PM 6:00PM-10:30PM
Sat: 10AM-1PM 1:30PM - 6PM
Sun: closed
mon: 10:00am - 5:00PM           #case insensitive
mon: 8:00am-12:00pm, 1pm-5pm    #time periods can be separated by comma(,) or space
mon: 8:00am-12:00pm 1pm-5pm
mon-fri : 10am-5pm
sat - sun: closed
sun : closed

Examples of invalid entries:

mon  10am - 5pm           # colon(:) after week day(s) is required
mon fri: 10am - 5pm       # dash(-) between two days is required
mon-fri: 10:am - 5pm      # minute component for time is required when the colon(:) is present
mon-fri: 10 am - 5 pm     # no space is allowed between time digits and am/pm
mon : 10am - 17           # standard time format (with am or pm) is required
sat-sun: 10am-1pm closed  # closed can only be used with other time periods

Usage

#!ruby
1.9.3-p194 :001 > require 'store_hours'
 => true 
1.9.3-p194 :002 > hours_parser = ::StoreHours::StoreHours.new
 => #<StoreHours::StoreHours:0x007fb5dc1bead8 @hours=[]> 
1.9.3-p194 :003 > hours_parser.from_text('mon:10:40am-5pm tue:8am-')
 => [false, "syntax error: input is not in correct format"] 
1.9.3-p194 :004 > hours_parser.from_text('mon:10:40am-5pm tue:8am-6pm')
 => [true, ""] 
1.9.3-p194 :006 > puts hours_parser.to_text
Mon: 10:40AM - 5:00PM
Tue: 8:00AM - 6:00PM
1.9.3-p194 :007 > hours_parser
 => #<StoreHours::StoreHours:0x007fb5dc1bead8 @hours=[{1..1=>[640..1020]}, {2..2=>[480..1080]}]>

Limitations

Time periods can only be within 0AM-11:59PM. In other words, time periods like 11:30PM-6:00AM are not supported.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'store_hours'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install store_hours

Contributing

Fork it
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
Create new Pull Request