timediffposix

Purpose

Computes the difference between two dates.

Format

diff = timediffposix(dt_1, dt_2, units)

Parameters:

• dt_1 (NxK string array, dataframe, or matrix) –

  contains 1 more dates as a string array, dates, or in POSIX date/time format (seconds since Jan 1, 1970).

  If string, valid formats include:

  • "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS"

  • "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI"

  • "YYYY-MM-DD HH"

  • "YYYY-MM-DD"

  • "YYYY-MM"

  • "YYYY"

• dt_2 (String array, dataframe, or matrix) –

  contains 1 more dates as a string array, dates, or in POSIX date/time format. ExE conformable with dt_1.

  If string, valid formats include:

  • "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS"

  • "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI"

  • "YYYY-MM-DD HH"

  • "YYYY-MM-DD"

  • "YYYY-MM"

  • "YYYY"

• units (string) –

  indicating the units in which to report the difference.

  Valid unit options:

  • "days"

  • "hours"

  • "minutes"

  • "seconds"

Returns:

diff (NxK matrix) – the difference between dt_1 and dt_2 in terms of the specified units.

Examples

// Dates in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format
dt_1 = "1979-02-14 19:30:21";
dt_2 = "1979-02-14 14:30:21";

// Compute the difference in terms of hours
diff = timediffposix(dt_1, dt_2, "hours");

The above code will set diff equal to:

5

// Dates as seconds since Jan 1, 1970
dt_1 = -61446476430;
dt_2 = -61446477127;

// Calculate the difference
diff = timediffposix(dt_1, dt_2, "minutes");

The above code will set diff equal to:

11.617

// Dates in YYYY-MM format
dt_1 =  "2020-12"$|"2021-01"$|"2021-03";
dt_2 =   "2020-04";

// Find the time difference between the dates
diff = timediffposix(dt_1, dt_2, "days");

The above code will set diff equal to:

244
275
334

See also

Functions timeDiffDT(), timeDeltaPosix(), seqadt(), seqaposix()