How can I achieve similar functionality to the "time2num" function without using the Predictive Maintenance Toolbox in MATLAB R2024b?

I am working with datetime arrays that I would like to convert to numeric vectors. In particular, each element of the numeric vector should indicate the number of days that have elapsed between the corresponding datetime array element and the first datetime array element.

I saw that the "time2num" function can implement this workflow easily. However, I don't have access to the Predictive Maintenance Toolbox.

Are there any ways I can achieve a similar workflow without the "time2num" function?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

It is possible to replicate the behavior of "time2num" using the "convertTo" function, which can also be used to convert datetime arrays into numeric vectors, and does not require additional toolboxes. The following code snippet shows how the "convertTo" function can be used to achieve the same result as the "time2num" function:

T = [datetime('yesterday'), datetime('today'), datetime('tomorrow')]
disp(time2num(T, 'days'))
disp(convertTo(T, 'epochtime', 'Epoch', datetime('yesterday')) / 86400) % 86400 seconds in a day