Get time slots based on multiple workshops I have a list of Workshops, each having open days (Monday, Tuesday etc.) and open time and close time (which will be same for each day). Now, Based on the current time, I need to find out next 7 days available slots. A slot is of 2 hour and is available if any of the workshop is open in that 2 hour time. The first slot of each day will start at the open_time (nearest to hour time for eg. if open_time is 09:23:54 then first slot start time will be 10:00:00) of workshop opens first on that day.

My solution so far is to have a Workshop table which has off_days, open_at, close_at, name columns. There is another table which is WorkshopHolidays which has holiday_date, workshop_id.

class Workshop(models.Model):
    DAY_CHOICES = (
        (0,'Monday'),
        (1,'Tuesday'),
        (2,'Wednesday'),
        (3,'Thursday'),
        (4,'Friday'),
        (5,'Saturday'),
        (6,'Sunday')
    )
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255,null=True)
    address = models.CharField(max_length=1024)
    open_at = models.TimeField(null=True, blank=True)
    close_at = models.TimeField(null=True, blank=True)
    off_days = MultiSelectField(choices=DAY_CHOICES,null=True,blank=True)
    active = models.BooleanField(default=True)


class WorkshopHoliday(CreatedAtAbstractBase):
    workshop = models.ForeignKey(Workshop)
    holiday_date = models.DateField()
    active = models.BooleanField(default=True)


Now given a datetime, I need to find what are the two hour slots available for next seven days. If any one store is open in a slot, that slot should be part of the output.

The way I am approaching the problem now is following:

def get_slots():
    current_time = timezone.now()
    workshops = Workshop.objects.all()
    slots = {}
    for i in range(1,7):
        curdate = current_time.date()
        day = current_time.weekday()
        curdate_dict = {'start_time':None, 'end_time':None}
        for workshop in workshops:
            off_days = workshop.off_days if workshop.off_days else ''
            if day in off_days:
                continue
            wh = WorkshopHoliday.objects.filter(holiday_date=curdate,active=True)
            if wh:
                continue
            start_time = curdate_dict.get('start_time')
            if start_time:
                if start_time &gt; current_time.time() and start_time &gt; workshop.open_at and workshop.open_at &gt; current_time.time():
                    start_time = workshop.open_at
            elif workshop.open_at &gt; current_time.time():
                    start_time = workshop.open_at
            curdate_dict['start_time'] = start_time
            end_time = curdate_dict.get('end_time')
            if end_time:
                if end_time &gt; current_time.time() and end_time &lt; workshop.close_at and workshop.close_at &gt; current_time.time():
                    end_time = workshop.open_at
            elif workshop.open_at &gt; current_time.time():
                    end_time = workshop.open_at
            curdate_dict['end_time'] = end_time
        slots[curdate] = curdate_dict
        current_time.replace(hour=0,minute=0,second=0)
        current_time = current_time + timezone.timedelta(days=1)


Please suggest if there could be a better way to approach this problem (may be a better SQL query or algorithm). Also, please point out if there is some scenario in which this will give incorrect result.
You can simplify the creation of DAY_CHOICES using the calendar module:

DAY_CHOICES = tuple(enumerate(calendar.day_name))


this has the advantage of using the right locale, if need be.



You can reduce going back and forth between Python and your SQL backend using prefetching of objects, instead of querying each time you need something. Django offers the prefetch_related operation:

workshops = Workshop.objects.prefetch_related(
    Prefetch(
        'workshopholiday_set',
        queryset=WorkshopHoliday.objects.filter(
            holiday_date__ge=start_date,
            holiday_date__le=start_date + timezone.timedelta(days=7),
            active=True),
        to_attr='holidays_for_the_week'))


Where start_date is timezone.now().date(). This way, you get a list of every WorkshopHoliday for the upcoming week associated to the current workshop into workshop.holidays_for_the_week. You can test if the current date is in there with:

if curdate in {h.holiday_date for h in workshop.holidays_for_the_week}:
    continue


I would also advise to exchange the two for loops so you don't compute the set of holiday dates seven time for the same workshop.



curdate_dict is not necessary. You can replace

curdate_dict = {'start_time': None, 'end_time': None}


by

start_time, end_time = None, None


and remove all curdate_dict.get(…) and curdate_dict[…] = …. You just need to slots[curdate] = {'start_time': start_time, 'end_time': end_time} then, which will improve the memory management as well.



current_time.replace(hour=0, minute=0, second=0)


does nothing: the replace method returns a new datetime instance and since you’re not assigning it, you’re just wasting time.



for i in range(1, 7):


First of, i is never used: you should write _ instead to indicate that. Second, range(1, 7) produces 6 values. So you will perform your computations for today and the 5 next days. If you wished to compute your hours for a whole week, you should have written

for _ in range(7):


instead.

I also advise you to get the "counter" near that line. This is so the reader can grasp your intent more easily:

def get_slots():
    starting_time = timezone.now()
    start_date = starting_time.date()
    workshops = Workshop.objects.prefetch_related(
        Prefetch(
            'workshopholiday_set',
            queryset=WorkshopHoliday.objects.filter(
                holiday_date__ge=start_date,
                holiday_date__le=start_date + timezone.timedelta(days=7),
                active=True),
            to_attr='holidays_for_the_week'))
    slots = {}
    for day in range(7):
        current_time = starting_time + timezone.timedelta(days=day)
        …