How to convert time format of file date

Hello, I want to convert the date string obtained by file.date to the format yyyymmdd_HHMMSS, i.e.,

'13-Mrz-2023 09:19:45'

to

'20230313_091945'.

I want to make the time being UTC and the converion applicable for all system languages (de_DE, en_US, etc.), i.e., system independent.

I'm struggling with the locale parameter ('Mrz' might be 'Mar' in English languages).

The MATLAB version is 2017b.

Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

"Hello, I want to convert the date string obtained by file.date to the format yyyymmdd_HHMMSS, i.e.,"

A much simpler and much more robust approach is to use the DATENUM field (assuming that you are working with the output from the DIR function). Then you can trivially avoid all of the hassle of different date locales. For example:

writematrix(pi,'myfile.txt')
S = dir('*.txt') % Use the DATENUM field, not the locale-dependent DATE field!

S = struct with fields:
       name: 'myfile.txt'
     folder: '/users/mss.system.eZW9Qf'
       date: '13-Mar-2023 09:26:30'
      bytes: 17
      isdir: 0
    datenum: 7.3896e+05

T = datetime(S(1).datenum, 'ConvertFrom','datenum', 'Format','uuuuMMdd_HHmmss', 'TimeZone','local')

T = datetime
   20230313_092630

T.TimeZone = 'Z' % UTC

T = datetime
   20230313_092630

Apparently this forum uses UTC, but if your locale is set up correctly, then changing the TimeZone will adjust the time&date automatically.

[Julian Zeitlhöfler]

Hi Stephen, thank you very much for the quick and convenient answer.