How to turn a column of seconds into the datetime-type?

I have a table that looks like this:

TIME_s    SD1_SPEED_MEASURED_1_rpm    SD2_SPEED_MEASURED_1_rpm    SD3_SPEED_MEASURED_1_rpm    SD4_SPEED_MEASURED_1_rpm    SD1_MOTOR_SPEED_rpm    SD2_MOTOR_SPEED_rpm    SD3_MOTOR_SPEED_rpm    SD4_MOTOR_SPEED_rpm    SD1_MOTOR_TORQUE_pct    SD2_MOTOR_TORQUE_pct    SD3_MOTOR_TORQUE_pct    SD4_MOTOR_TORQUE_pct    SD1_TORQUE_REF_B_pct    SD2_TORQUE_REF_B_pct    SD3_TORQUE_REF_B_pct    SD4_TORQUE_REF_B_pct
    ______    ________________________    ________________________    ________________________    ________________________    ___________________    ___________________    ___________________    ___________________    ____________________    ____________________    ____________________    ____________________    ____________________    ____________________    ____________________    ____________________

     242.2      -66.174                    -69.167                      -77.607                     -74.388                      -66.369                 -69.19                -77.367                -73.986                -2.6341                -0.046144                0.34017                 -0.7492                  -1.97                 -2.3501                 -2.3501                 -2.3501           
    242.18      -66.174                    -69.167                      -77.607                     -74.388                      -66.369                 -69.19                -77.367                -73.986                -2.6341                -0.046144                0.34017                 -0.7492                  -1.97                 -2.3501                 -2.3501                 -2.3501           
    242.16      -68.547                    -72.838                       -79.49                     -77.035                      -68.078                -72.151                -78.954                -75.901                -2.8352                 -0.24927                -1.2125                 -4.7041                  -1.97                   -1.97                 -2.3501                 -2.3501           
    242.14      -68.547                    -72.838                       -79.49                     -77.035                      -68.078                -72.151                -78.954                -75.901                -2.8352                 -0.24927                -1.2125                 -4.7041                  -1.97                   -1.97                 -2.3501                 -2.3501           
    242.12      -71.372                    -75.556                      -80.754                     -79.204                       -70.49                -74.884                -80.715                -78.217                -3.1016                  -3.7407                -1.6364                 -2.9571                  -1.97                   -1.97                   -1.97                   -1.97         
    ...
    0            0                          0                            0                            0                            0                     0                      0

Where the leftmost column records the time that has passed since the beginning of the recording in seconds. In a separate variable, I have stored the starting time of the recording in the datetime-type. In this example, the time is this:

zinterval = 

datetime

18-Feb-2018 15:11:11

Now, is there any way to turn the value 0 in the column of seconds into the starting time, and then have all the following seconds be times in the datetime-type following the starting time?

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

The simple MATLAB solution using datetime and duration classes (no outdated datevec):

T.TIME_S = zinterval + seconds(T.TIME_s)

Note that using the variable name "TIME_s" is then a bit misleading (better would be "TIME" or something similar) and I would recommend avoiding overwriting your raw data. Here is a full working example:

>> T = array2table([242.2;242.18;242.16;242.14;242.12;0],'VariableNames',{'TIME_s'})
T = 
    TIME_s
    ______
     242.2
    242.18
    242.16
    242.14
    242.12
         0
>> zinterval = datetime('18-Feb-2018 15:11:11')
zinterval = 
   18-Feb-2018 15:11:11
>> T.TIME = zinterval + seconds(T.TIME_s)
T = 
    TIME_s            TIME        
    ______    ____________________
     242.2    18-Feb-2018 15:15:13
    242.18    18-Feb-2018 15:15:13
    242.16    18-Feb-2018 15:15:13
    242.14    18-Feb-2018 15:15:13
    242.12    18-Feb-2018 15:15:13
         0    18-Feb-2018 15:11:11

[Heidi Mäkitalo]

For some reason, attempting to do it this way brings up the following error message:

Subscript indices must either be real positive integers or logicals.

[Stephen23]

@Heidi Mäkitalo: make sure that you do not have a variable named seconds, otherwise you will get exactly that error (because you shadow the seconds function with the variable):

>> seconds = [1,2,3]; % do NOT name any variable SECONDS!
>> seconds(T.TIME_s)  % tries to use non-integers as indices into SECONDS.
Subscript indices must either be real positive integers or logicals.

Once you clear your workspace of that unfortunately named variable, the example will work.

[Heidi Mäkitalo]

Oh haha yes that's exactly it, now it works! If using datevec really does affect the precision of the data, I suppose I should do it this way instead.

[Stephen23]

"If using datevec really does affect the precision of the data, I suppose I should do it this way instead."

According to the datetime documentation: "datetime values have flexible display formats up to nanosecond precision", which you would definitely lose when converting to datenum or datevec and back again. Even if you do not need that much precision, a good rule of thumb is to only perform data-type conversions when required... and in this case, the conversion is not required!

Answer 2

[Rik]

The rowfun function should be usefull here. You can convert seconds to datetime with t = datetime(Y,M,D,H,MI,S) (set the rest of the inputs to 0).

Edit:

This shows how little I work with the table format. I massively over-complicated it when trying to flesh out my answer:

clc
tab=table([250 200 150 100]',[-66 -55 -44 -33]','VariableNames',{'TIME_s','SD1_SPEED_MEASURED_1_rpm'});
zinterval = datetime(2018,02,18,15,11,11);
FieldName='TIME_s';


pos=find(ismember(tab.Properties.VariableNames,{FieldName}));
tab.(FieldName)=rowfun(@(t) add_my_date(t,zinterval),tab,...
    'InputVariables',FieldName,'OutputFormat','uniform');
disp(tab)

function t=add_my_date(t,t0)
t=datenum(0,0,0,0,0,t);
t0=datenum(t0);
t=datetime(t+t0,'ConvertFrom','datenum');
end

[Heidi Mäkitalo]

Thank you!

Answer 3

[Alex Mcaulley]

Being T your table:

[Y,M,D,H,MN,S] = datevec(zinterval);
T.TIME_S = datetime(Y,M,D,H,MN,S + T.TIME_S);

[Heidi Mäkitalo]

Thank you, it works perfectly!! :--)

[Stephen23]

Note that multiple data-type conversions are not required (with accompanying loss of precision and meta-data from the datetime object).

Multiple intermediate variables are also not required.

It is not required to use outdated datevec with datetime/duration data.

See the other answers for simpler solutions without loss of precision.

EDIT: according to the MATLAB documentation, both seconds and datetime were introduced in R2014b.

[Alex Mcaulley]

Thanks Stephen for the comment. I am not very familiar with datetime data and I don't have seconds function in my Matlab release ;)

EDIT: Yes, I posted it without those functions (R2012b)

Answer 4

[Steven Lord]

There's no need to split the current date and time into parts to solve this. Let's make a reference datetime.

N = datetime('now')

Here's a vector of random seconds data.

TIME_s = cumsum([0; 10*rand(9, 1)])

Combine them. The call to seconds is necessary. If you add a datetime and a raw number, MATLAB treats the raw number as a number of days. If you'd wanted to add multiples of a different time unit (like minutes) see the "Create Date and Time Arrays" section on this documentation page.

timeFromReference = N + seconds(TIME_s)

Let's display the result with three fractional seconds in the Format so you can see the change more clearly.

timeFromReference.Format = 'dd-MMM-uuuu HH:mm:ss.SSS'

You can perform these operations on a "free" datetime array and/or array of seconds, or you can perform these same operations on arrays stored in a table array.

[Heidi Mäkitalo]

Thank you!