The Tuesday following the first Monday in November
By chys on February 6th, 2010Martin Luther King Day falls the third Monday of January; Daylight Saving Time begins on the second Sunday of March; Father’s Day falls on the third Sunday in June; …
To represent these dates in a program, the intuitive method is to use tuples (3,1,1), (2,0,3), (3,0,6), respectively. But probably this is not the best idea. The number of representable observations is limited. For instance, we cannot represent Election Day (Tuesday following the first Monday of November) or Memorial Day (last Monday of May).
Nevertheless, it is still possible to represent all the above in three small integers, by replacing the first integer in the tuple with the earliest possible day of month. For instance,
Martin Luther King Day = the Monday between January 15 and 21, represented by (15,1,1)
Election Day = the Tuesday between November 2 and 8, represented by (2,2,11)
Thanksgiving (before 1939) = last Thursday of November = the Thursday between November 24 and 30, represented by (24,4,11)
Thanksgiving (modern) = fourth Thursday of November = the Thursday between November 22 and 28, represented by (22,4,11)
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Tags: dev
