>>>>Look at the switch command
>>>
>>>Switch will not help me in this case as I need 3 cases:
>>>
>>>Both variables defined
>>>
>>>startTime defined
>>>
>>>endTime defined
>>>
>>>I don't see how switch can help - switch is only for checking a single variable against predefined values.
>>
>>That's the problem.... if its not in a blog post, you can't figure it out....Learn to think outside a blog post...
>
>I don't see how it could be used in any efficient way since the parameter to a switch statement must be a simple type.

Considering that each if/else if has two comparisons and a case only has one comparison, I think the switch solution is more efficient

You can of course

if(  startTime < defaultDate )
{  
        if( endTime < defaultDate )
             ;//
        else if (endTime== defaultDate)
            ; //
        else
           ;
}
 else if (startTime == defaultDate )
{
        if( endTime < defaultDate )
             ;//
        else if (endTime== defaultDate)
            ; //
        else
           ;
}
else
{
        if( endTime < defaultDate )
             ;//
        else if (endTime== defaultDate)
            ; //
        else
           ;
}