etime

(Not recommended; use datetime values or between) Time elapsed between date vectors

etime is not recommended. Use datetime values instead. To calculate the elapsed time between two datetime values, either subtract one from the other or use the between function. For more information on updating your code, see Version History or Replace Discouraged Instances of Serial Date Numbers and Date Strings.

Syntax

e = etime(t2,t1)

Description

e = etime(t2,t1) returns the number of seconds between two date vectors or matrices of date vectors, t1 and t2.

Note: To measure the time required to run code, use timeit, or tic and toc, instead of etime. For more information, see Tips.

Examples

Compute Elapsed Time

Compute the time elapsed between a specified time and the current time.

Specify the initial date and time as the start of January 2020. Convert it to date vector form.

t1 = datevec('2020-01-01')

t1 = 1×6

        2020           1           1           0           0           0

Determine the current date and time by using the datetime function.

t2 = datetime("now")

t2 = datetime
   09-Aug-2025 11:57:57

Convert the current date and time to a date vector.

t2 = datevec(t2)

t2 = 1×6
103 ×

    2.0250    0.0080    0.0090    0.0110    0.0570    0.0580

You can compute the number of seconds between t1 and t2 by using etime.

e = etime(t2,t1)

e = 
1.7690e+08

However, the etime function is not recommended. In particular, it is not recommended for measuring the time it takes to run your code.

Input Arguments

t2,t1 — Date vectors

1-by-6 vector | m-by-6 matrix

Date vectors, specified as 1-by-6 vectors or m-by-6 matrices containing m full date vectors in the format:[Year Month Day Hour Minute Second].

Example: [2012 03 27 11 50 01]

Data Types: double

Tips

• To time the duration of an event, use the timeit or tic and toc functions instead of etime and clock. The clock function is based on the system time, which can be adjusted periodically by the operating system, and thus might not be reliable in time comparison operations.

Algorithms

etime does not account for the following:

• Leap seconds

• Daylight saving time adjustments

• Differences in time zones

Extended Capabilities

Thread-Based Environment

Run code in the background using MATLAB® backgroundPool or accelerate code with Parallel Computing Toolbox™ ThreadPool.

This function fully supports thread-based environments. For more information, see Run MATLAB Functions in Thread-Based Environment.

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

R2022b: Not recommended

There are no plans to remove etime. However, the datetime, duration, and calendarDuration data types are recommended instead. The datetime data type provides flexible date and time formats, storage out to nanosecond precision, and properties to account for time zones and daylight saving time.

To calculate the elapsed time between two datetime values, either subtract one from the other or use the between function. For example, subtract the start of today from the current date and time. Return the elapsed time as a duration value.

startOfToday = datetime("today")
currentTime = datetime("now")

startOfToday = datetime
   15-Apr-2022

currentTime = datetime
   15-Apr-2022 15:53:28

elapsedTime = currentTime - startOfToday

elapsedTime = duration
   15:53:28

To return elapsed time as a calendarDuration value, use between.

d1 = datetime("2022-01-01")
d2 = datetime("now")
elapsedTime = between(d1,d2)

elapsedTime = calendarDuration
   6mo 18d 13h 19m 18.5561949999974s