Dynamic holidays in app.config

Ever need to check a date against a list of holidays? Well here you go.


Create the following Supporting classes:

    public class HolidayElement : ConfigurationElement
    {
        [ConfigurationProperty("Date", IsKey = true, IsRequired = true)]
        public DateTime Date
        {
            get { return (DateTime)this["Date"]; }
        }
    }

    public class HolidayElementCollection : ConfigurationElementCollection
    {
        protected override ConfigurationElement CreateNewElement()
        {
            return new HolidayElement();
        }

        protected override object GetElementKey(ConfigurationElement element)
        {
            return ((HolidayElement)element).Date;
        }
    }

    public class HolidayConfigurationSection : ConfigurationSection
    {
        [ConfigurationProperty("Holidays")]
        public HolidayElementCollection Dates
        {
            get { return (HolidayElementCollection)this["Holidays"]; }
        }
    }

You now can create a method to test for the date:

public static bool IsHoliday(DateTime dt)
        {
            HolidayConfigurationSection section =
                   (HolidayConfigurationSection)System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.GetSection("HolidayConfigurationSection");
 
            foreach (HolidayElement holiday in section.Dates)
            {
                if (DateTime.Compare(dt, holiday.Date) == 0)
                    return true;
            }
 
            return false;
         }

Add the following to the config file (app.confg):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="HolidayConfigurationSection" type="TheApplication.Utility.Classes.HolidayConfigurationSection, TheApplication.Utility.Library" requirePermission="false" />
  </configSections>
  <HolidayConfigurationSection>
    <Holidays>
      <add Date="1/1/2008"/>
      <add Date="5/26/2008"/>
      <add Date="7/4/2008"/>
      <add Date="9/1/2008"/>
      <add Date="11/27/2008"/>
      <add Date="11/28/2008"/>
      <add Date="12/25/2008"/>
      <add Date="12/26/2008"/>
    </Holidays>
  </HolidayConfigurationSection>
</configuration>

That's it. It makes it easy to change the date via the config file.
Enjoy...