How can I get date and time from Nist server?

I want to get the actual date and time from Nist.gov servers in MatLab using tcp connection to their server "time.nist.gov".

I've already tried another method using url https://nist.time.gov/actualtime.cgi?lzbc=siqm9b but it doesn't work anymore as it says "Use of this script is explicitly forbidden".

I coded this, but the return variable is a "uint8" 1x51 array and I cannot get what I need:

clc;
Nist_Time = tcpclient('time.nist.gov',13);
pause(0.5);
tcpdata = read(Nist_Time);
disp(tcpdata)

I expect to get a string with the 'tcpclient' formula where I can convert it into "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS" format

Answer 1

[J Chen]

str = char(tcpdata)

will convert the ascii code to a string. str(8:15) will give you the date. str(17:24) will give you the time.

[endystrike]

Thanks, it's working! ;)

I made a function to convert to serial date! :)

function [outdate] = GetNist2019()
    Nist_Time = tcpclient('time.nist.gov',13);
    pause(0.5);
    tcpdata = read(Nist_Time);
    str = char(tcpdata);
    str = str(8:15);
    outdate = datenum(str,'yy-mm-dd');
    clear str tcpdata Nist_Time;
end

[Benson Gou]

Thanks.

Benson

[PeLa]

If I run

tcpdata = read(Nist_Time)

two times, only for the first time I receive data, does anyone know why that is? I always have to run

Nist_Time = tcpclient('time.nist.gov',13);

again. I assume the connection get lost after the first read, but how can I keep the connection open?

Thanks!