The Christmas holiday season we are currently celebrating here in the United States reminds me of a common problem many applications need to take into account. What are the days out of a calendar year that are considered a business day? How do you track them? How are they determined when non-business days must be taken into account for the purposes of your application?
Often an approach is as simple as maintaining a table with a calendar of holidays for a period of time. Others use the same method used to calculate when a holiday occurs on the a calendar. Sometimes this is enough. What about countries such as India where their diverse culture results in dozens of holidays. I imagine they may be calculated as well.
International companies may need to take into account the schedules for multiple countries when establishing agreements based on business days.
Do you have a preferred technique for managing your business calendar? Why not share in comments here or by Email to btaylor@sswug.org.
Cheers,
Ben