CODEWITHSUNDEEP
google-apps-scriptgoogle-calendar-api
SJL
SJL

Reputation: 13

Calendar.getEvents() returned array order

I've searched online and I've looked at the Class Calendar API reference, found here: https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/calendar/calendar

I notice from running a script I've created that the elements of CalendarEvent[] returned by getEvents(startTime,endTime) seem to be in chronological order. Is this always true?

Essentially, am I guaranteed that the following code

events[i].getStartTime().getTime() <= events[i+1].getStartTime().getTime()

will always be true for 0 <= i < (events.length - 1)?

I'm interested in this because I'm creating a script, which merges two (or more) distinct calendars into one and also returns all time slots which are either unallocated (i.e. no event scheduled) or overlap more than one event. Knowing that the elements within a CalendarEvent[] are chronologically ordered makes this task significantly easier (and computationally less expensive).

TIA for any assistance,

S

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1675

Answers (3)

xd1936
xd1936

Reputation: 1180

I was having this problem as well. Instead of going with the overkill Calendar Advanced Service, I wrote a simple sorter for arrays of CalendarEvent objects.

// copy this to the bottom of your script, then call it on your array of CalendarEvent objects that you got from the CalendarApp
//
// ex:
// var sortedEvents = sortArrayOfCalendarEventsChronologically(events);
// or
// events = sortArrayOfCalendarEventsChronologically(events);

function sortArrayOfCalendarEventsChronologically(array) {
  if (!array || array.length == 0) {
    return 0;
  }
  var temp = [];
  for (var i in array) {
    var startTime = new Date(array[i].getStartTime());
    var startTimeMilli = startTime.getTime();
    for (var j in temp) {
      var iteratorStartTime = temp[j].getStartTime();
      var iteratorStartTimeMilli = iteratorStartTime.getTime();
      if (startTimeMilli < iteratorStartTimeMilli) {
        break;
      }
    }
    temp.splice(j, 0, array[i]);
  }
  return temp;
}

https://gist.github.com/xd1936/0d2b2222c068e4cbbbfc3a84edf8f696

Upvotes: 0

adjuremods
adjuremods

Reputation: 2998

My take on this is no, the array doesn't guarantee it will be ordered

An event will be returned if it starts during the time range, ends during the time range, or encompasses the time range. If no time zone is specified, the time values are interpreted in the context of the script's time zone, which may be different from the calendar's time zone.

If the data isn't complete it may hinder with what you handle it. Its still best for you to implement a sort

Upvotes: 0

Karan
Karan

Reputation: 1187

From my experience, yes. It was always in this order. Though I checked the docs and they don't mention anything about it.

So to be safe, you can either use advanced services to sort by the date https://developers.google.com/google-apps/calendar/v3/reference/events/list

or use vanilla javascript to sort them.

Upvotes: 1

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