Datetime conversion in numeric form (matrix)

So, I have been trying to convert date to a number and add it to the first column of a numeric matrix.

Unfortnatelly, I use the code below to create the matrix for a specific range of dates but the dates were imported as strings not numbers (see picture). i have no dea why this doesn't work. Any idea?

t1=datetime([2001 01 01 00 00 00]);
t2=datetime([2017 12 31 23 00 00]);
t=[t1:1/24:t2];

time = datetime(t); %this is where the conversion should have happened
time=time';

Firstly, I set the starting and finishing point and then, I choose to insert data by the hour.

After that I try but fail to do the numeric conversion.

Any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

If you want to convert them into date numbers, use the datenum function:

timeNr = datenum(time);

If you want to convert them into something else numeric, please be specific.

[Fe Mav]

I was told that Matlab "reads" date as a number and I'm new to this so I think that datenum is what I need. Thanks a lot!

[Star Strider]

As always, my pleasure!

Answer 2

[Steven Lord]

Rather than converting your datetime array into a number to combine it with a numeric array, consider creating a timetable array instead.

[Fe Mav]

What is that?

[Stephen23]

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/timetables.html