`etime`

Elapsed time in seconds between two date vectors.

Category: Language Fundamentals > Data Types

Syntax

t = etime(t1, t0)

Returns t1 minus t0, in seconds.

Description

etime converts both date vectors to absolute time and subtracts them, so it handles differences that cross day, month or year boundaries. The usual pattern is to store t0 = clock before some work and call etime(clock, t0) afterward.

For new code, datetime and duration arithmetic is more flexible.

Input arguments

t1, t0: Date vectors [year month day hour minute second], as returned by clock. Each is a 1-by-6 row.

Output arguments

t: Scalar double: the difference in seconds. It is negative when t1 is earlier than t0.

Example

Across midnight

etime([2024 1 2 0 1 0], [2024 1 1 23 59 0])
etime([2024 1 1 0 0 0], [2024 1 1 0 1 30])

Output

ans = 120
ans = -90

etime