[Proposal] SF-NNNN Search for recurrence in partial ranges (#1457)

Author: hristost

Proposals/nnnn-calendar-recurrence-rule-partial-range.md

@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+# Search for recurrence in partial ranges
+
+* Proposal: SF-NNNN
+* Author: Hristo Staykov <https://github.com/hristost>
+* Implementation: [#1456](https://github.com/swiftlang/swift-foundation/pull/1456)
+* Status: **Draft**
+
+## Revision history
+
+* **v1** Initial version
+
+## Introduction
+
+In [SF-0009](0009-calendar-recurrence-rule.md) we introduced `Calendar.RecurrenceRule`. With this API, we can find occurences of a recurring event in a given range:
+
+```swift
+let birthday   = Date(timeIntervalSince1970: 813283200.0)  // 1995-10-10T00:00:00-0000
+let rangeStart = Date(timeIntervalSince1970: 946684800.0)  // 2000-01-01T00:00:00-0000
+let rangeEnd   = Date(timeIntervalSince1970: 1293840000.0) // 2011-01-01T00:00:00-0000
+
+let recurrence = Calendar.RecurrenceRule(calendar: .current, frequency: .yearly)
+for date in recurrence.recurrences(of: birthday, in: rangeStart..<rangeEnd) {
+    // All occurrences of `birthday` between 2000 and 2010
+}
+```
+
+However, enumerating recurrences in a partial range is not supported: the user has to enumerate over a larger range, and discard results that are not necessary:
+
+```swift
+for date in recurrence.recurrences(of: birthday) where date >= rangeStart {
+    // All occurrences of `birthday` after 2000
+}
+```
+
+or specify a range that stretches to `Date.distantPast` or `Date.distantFuture`:
+
+```swift
+for date in recurrence.recurrences(of: birthday, in: rangeStart..<Date.distantFuture) {
+    // All occurrences of `birthday` after 2000
+}
+```
+
+This proposal adds a method similar to `recurrences` that allows specifying partial ranges.
+
+
+## Detailed design
+
+```swift
+public extension Calendar.RecurrenceRule.End {
+    @available(FoundationPreview 6.3, *)
+    public func recurrences(of start: Date,
+                            in range: PartialRangeThrough<Date>
+                            ) -> some (Sequence<Date> & Sendable)
+    @available(FoundationPreview 6.3, *)
+    public func recurrences(of start: Date,
+                            in range: PartialRangeTo<Date>
+                            ) -> some (Sequence<Date> & Sendable)
+    @available(FoundationPreview 6.3, *)
+    public func recurrences(of start: Date,
+                            in range: PartialRangeFrom<Date>
+                            ) -> some (Sequence<Date> & Sendable)
+    @available(FoundationPreview 6.3, *)
+    public func recurrences(of start: Date,
+                            in range: ClosedRange<Date>
+                            ) -> some (Sequence<Date> & Sendable)
+}
+```
+
+
+With this, the above example would simply become:
+
+```swift
+for date in recurrence.recurrences(of: birthday, in: rangeStart...) {
+    // All occurrences of `birthday` after 2000
+}
+```
+
+
+## Impact on existing code
+
+None.
+
+## Alternatives considered
+
+This API is a convenience over the workarounds presented in the introduction, but it
+is also more performant since we don't calculate dates we don't need in the final range.
+
+For cases where we're looking for recurrences up until a date, it might be tempting to set the `end` property of the recurrence rule to the end of the range:
+```swift
+recurrence.end = .afterDate(rangeEnd)
+```
+That is not advised for the recurrence rule might already have an `end` property of `.afterOcurrences()`. Besides, the recurrence rule struct represents when the event occurs, and the range in which we search is does not change that.
+
+We did consider instead only adding one method that accepts a `RangeExpression<Date>` argument. However, that means supporting any arbitrary ranges conforming to the protocol, in which cases we may not have lower and upper bounds that allow us to optimize search.