expression to calculate the time difference using Matlab functions

I have many pairs of times expressed, for example, as "3:19" and "1:28.4". I know I can break these up and multiplly by 60, etc, to get the time difference in seconds, but is there a Matlab function that does it?

Answer 1

[Rik]

The closest to what you need is the duration function, but that has very limited support for text input.

str='3:19';
try,duration(str),catch ME,warning(ME.message),end

Warning: The duration text format is ambiguous. Specify 'InputFormat' with 'hh:mm' or 'mm:ss'.

str='1:28.4';
try,duration(str),catch ME,warning(ME.message),end

Warning: The duration text format is ambiguous. Specify 'InputFormat' with 'hh:mm' or 'mm:ss'.

You can also write something yourself:

delta=time2duration('3:19')-time2duration('1:28.4');
seconds(delta)

ans = 110.6000

function d=time2duration(str)
RE=['((\d+):)?',... % optional hours
    '(\d?\d):',... % one or two digit minutes
    '(\d?\d(\.\d+)?)']; % seconds (with optional decimals)
x=regexp(str,RE,'tokens');
t = str2double([x{:}]);
t(isnan(t))=0;
d=duration(t(1),t(2),t(3));
end