Programming

Dates and Times

MATLAB represents date and time information in either of three formats: date strings, serial date numbers, or date vectors. You have the choice of using any of these formats. If you work with more than one date and time format, MATLAB provides functions to help you easily convert from one format to another, (e.g., from a string to a serial date number).

When using date strings, you have an additional option of choosing from 19 different string styles to express date and/or time information.

This section covers the following topics:

• Types of Date Formats
• Conversions Between Date Formats
• Date String Formats
• Output Formats
• Current Date and Time
• Function Summary

Types of Date Formats

The three MATLAB date and time formats are

• Date Strings
• Serial Date Numbers
• Date Vectors

This table shows examples of the three formats.

Date Format	Example
Date string	02-Oct-1996
Serial date number	729300
Date vector	1996 10 2 0 0 0

Date Strings

There are a number of different styles in which to express date and time information as a date string. For example, several possibilities for October 31, 2003 at 3:45:17 in the afternoon are

• 31-Oct-2003 15:45:17
  10/31/03
  15:45:17
  03:45:17 PM
  

If you are working with a small number of dates at the MATLAB command line, then date strings are often the most convenient format to use.

Note    The MATLAB date function returns the current date and time as a date string.

Serial Date Numbers

A serial date number represents a calendar date as the number of days that has passed since a fixed base date. In MATLAB, serial date number 1 is January 1, 0000. MATLAB also uses serial time to represent fractions of days beginning at midnight; for example, 6 p.m. equals 0.75 serial days. So the string '31-Oct-2003, 6:00 pm' in MATLAB is date number 731885.75.

MATLAB works internally with serial date numbers. If you are using functions that handle large numbers of dates or doing extensive calculations with dates, you get better performance if you use date numbers.

Note    The MATLAB now function returns the current date and time as a serial date number.

Date Vectors

Date vectors are an internal format for some MATLAB functions; you do not typically use them in calculations. A date vector contains the elements [year month day hour minute second].

Note    The MATLAB clock function returns the current date and time as a serial vector.

Function Summary

Conversions Between Date Formats

© 1994-2005 The MathWorks, Inc.