checking for overlapping datetime

[danielela]

Hi all,

I have a table like this:

Section | start time | end time
Aaa | 01Jun2025:00:01:10 | 01Jun2025:00:09:02
Aaa | 01Jun2025:00:03:10 | 01Jun2025:00:12:00
Aaa | 01Jun2025:00:10:09 | 01Jun2025:00:18:08
Bbb | 01Jun2025:00:01:02 | 01Jun2025:00:03:01
Bbb | 01Jun2025:00:02:10 | 01Jun2025:00:09:08
…

What I want to do is to check all overlapping and create a new column to label each row. Like this:

Section | start time | end time | group
Aaa | 01Jun2025:00:01:10 | 01Jun2025:00:09:02 | 1
Aaa | 01Jun2025:00:03:10 | 01Jun2025:00:12:00 | 2 (start time is earlier than previous end time, so label as 2)
Aaa | 01Jun2025:00:10:09 | 01Jun2025:00:18:08 | 1 (start time is later than group 1 end time, so group 1 is released and can assign to this row)
Bbb | 01Jun2025:00:01:02 | 01Jun2025:00:03:01 | 1 ( new section restart the calculation from group 1)
Bbb | 01Jun2025:00:02:10 | 01Jun2025:00:09:08 |2
…

I tried to loop through all row, and record all “group” latest end time in macro variable. Then compare each row endtime with each variable. But it takes so slow.

Any idea?

[LinusH]

Checking interval can be a bit tricky, but I don't this is an application for macro.
Have the data set sorted by section and start time, do a data set by.
Create two retained columns for start and end time, so you can compare those values with current star and end time on the next record - and based on that comparison set your label.