The latest articles on DEV Community by Hugo Jose (@hugo_jose_9). https://dev.to/hugo_jose_9 https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F2916269%2Fa973280c-4674-4248-a242-14b5606583ab.jpg https://dev.to/hugo_jose_9 en Hugo Jose Fri, 18 Jul 2025 04:52:51 +0000 https://dev.to/hugo_jose_9/showcase-recurlyex-human-readable-recurrence-expressions-for-net-55fb https://dev.to/hugo_jose_9/showcase-recurlyex-human-readable-recurrence-expressions-for-net-55fb <p>I built NaturalCron, a C# library that makes scheduling recurring events as easy to read as:<br> </p> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>every 25 minutes on friday between 1:00pm and 3:00pm </code></pre> </div> <p>Instead of wrestling with cryptic CRON syntax, you can define schedules in a natural-language–style format. It’s especially handy for storing schedules in a database or letting end-users view/edit them<br> </p> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>using System; using NaturalCron; // Define an advanced expression string expression = "every 30 minutes in [jan, jun] between 09:00 and 18:00"; // Parse and calculate next occurrence (local time) NaturalCronExpr schedule = NaturalCronExpr.Parse(expression); DateTime next = schedule.GetNextOccurrence(DateTime.Now); Console.WriteLine($"Next occurrence: {next}"); </code></pre> </div> <h2> Why? </h2> <p>CRON is powerful but hard to read. RecurlyEx aims to bring flexibility and readability for developers and end-users alike.</p> <p>GitHub: <a href="https://github.com/hugoj0s3/NaturalCron" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/hugoj0s3/NaturalCron</a></p> dotnet csharp opensource