Imagine that someone comes to you with the following database requirements: In a doctors' office, the program will keep track of appointments for each of the doctors. Each doctor’s days are divided into 10 minute units. For example, Dr. Kramer has an appointment from 9:30 to 9:50 with Shana F., followed by an appointment with Frank D. from 9:50 to 10:10, and so on. They want to be able to do searches for unscheduled time that fit certain criteria such as: What is the next 50 minute opening after 3 pm?

This tech note covers a simple yet flexible approach for handling this problem.

Tech Note