date time convert to elapsed time

I have a vector of date times in 'HH:MM:SS' format which I want to convert to elapsed time. Each cell is a 1 minute increment from the previous.

Right now I'm doing a for loop that loops the size of the entire vector, and does x(i)-x(1) to calculate the elapsed time (in minutes).

This seems kind of cumbersome code, and I feel like there's an easier way. Any recommendations?

Answer 1

[Thomas]

your cell array

c={'12:00:00' '12:00:01' '12:00:02' '12:00:03'}
d=datenum(c,'HH:MM:SS')
out=d-d(1);
time_sec=out*86400

[David C]

super! Thanks guys!

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

datenum() the cell array of date strings to get out a vector of serial date numbers. Subtract the first value from the array to get the elapsed times in days. Multiply by 24*60 to get elapsed times in minutes. No loop should be needed.

[Jamiat Nanteza]

Thank you. You saved me