The art of finding information algorithm

Having a JSON file containing about 10,000 records, each record includes a timestamp in the format '2011-04-29'. Currently, I also have a client-side array (referred to as our calendar) with arrays such as -

['2011-04-26', '2011-05-02', 'Week 1', '2010 - 11']
...

The objective is to assign a week number to each timestamp in the records. While a traditional linear search could achieve this, it becomes cumbersome when dealing with over 10,000 JSON records and nearly 300 weeks in the calendar.

Any suggestions on a more efficient approach?

Additional note: The reason for needing the calendar is that the weeks mentioned are not based on the actual week of the year but rather defined elsewhere.

Would there be a more effective method if the strings were converted to Date.getTime()?

Answer №1

If we only have 300 weeks to work with, one effective strategy would be to create an intermediary lookup object that matches each possible timestamp to its corresponding week number. By running a basic loop, you can generate something like this:

{
    '2011-04-26': 1,
    '2011-04-27': 1,
    // ...
    '2011-05-02': 1,
    '2011-05-03': 2,
    '2011-05-04': 2,
    // ...
}

These values would serve as references in your calendar array.

With this lookup object in place, you can easily assign your 10,000 records to their respective calendar weeks by performing a quick search in this object.

Answer №2

If your calendar records are organized in some manner, you can implement a binary search algorithm on them. Consider saving the dates as timestamps instead of strings to potentially speed up comparisons (although string comparison works fine for the current format).

An alternative approach could be to index your calendar by "weeks". For example:

{
  "Week 1": ['2011-04-26', '2011-05-02', '2010 - 11'],
  "Week 2": ['2011-05-03', '2011-05-09', '2010 - 12'],
  ...
}

It's worth noting that creating this lookup object from your calendar array is an O(n) operation. Therefore, if you only need to search for one record, even a linear search on the original array might be faster.

Below is a sample algorithm for searching in your original array:

var calendar = [
  ['2011-04-26', '2011-05-02', 'Week 1', '2010 - 11'],
  ['2011-05-03', '2011-05-09', 'Week 2', '2010 - 12'],
  ...
];
function getRecord(date) {
    var l = 0,
        r = calendar.length-1;
    while (l <= r) {
        var m = ~~(l + (r-l)/2);
        var comp = comparefn(this[m]);
        if (calendar[m][1] < date)
            l = m+1;
        else if (calendar[m][0] > date)
            r = m-1;
        else
            return calendar[m];
    }
    // If a date falls between two weeks in the calendar, behavior may vary
    return null;
}

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