Scheduling Database - Design Help!

I need to develop a scheduling app and am having trouble with the database
design. I can easily design a table hold appointments with start and finish
times, but I always have an issue when it comes time to searching for free
time.

The search examples:
Find the first available appointment in September Find the first afternoon appointment
etc...

Should appointments be linked similar to a linked list? Should I create a
row for each 5 or 10 or 15 minute slice of the day for every day and then
just search for null in a 'used' field? This could grow way to fast.

If you need a more specific example to understand I can provide that, but I
wanted to keep this as short as possible.

If anyone has experience designing a scheduling DB then please post your
expoeriences.

Thanks Received on Mon Sep 19 2005 - 07:23:30 CEST