convert a time data into a Epoch/Unix time

The time data are saved as DATE and TIME in the two columns of a Excel worksheet. How can I convert them into a Epoch/Unix time by Matlab?

 DATE          TIME
 24-DEC-2016   04:31:04:59

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

posixtime( datetime(strcat(DATE, {' '}, TIME), 'InputFormat', 'dd-MMM-yyyy hh:mm:ss:SS') )

Answer 2

[Herbert Guzman]

What toolbox do you need for this function?

[Walter Roberson]

r2014b now that I have corrected the function name