Convert seconds to human readable string(s)

Version 1.6 (3.39 KB) by Rody Oldenhuis
Convert an amount of seconds to hours/days/weeks/etc.
4.4
(10)
2.2K Downloads
Updated 2 May 2020
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Editor's Note: This file was selected as MATLAB Central Pick of the Week

This function converts a (usually large) amount of seconds to human-readable string. For example,
>> str = seconds2human(1463456.3)
str =
'About 2 weeks and 2 days.'
You may also call the function with a second input argument; either 'short' (the default) or 'full'. This determines the level of detail returned in the string:
>> str = seconds2human(1463456.3, 'full')
str =
'2 weeks, 2 days, 22 hours, 30 minutes, 56 seconds.'

The 'short' format returns only the two largest units of time.

Furthermore, [secs] may be an NxM-matrix, in which case the output is an NxM cell array of the corresponding strings.

Cite As

Rody Oldenhuis (2026). Convert seconds to human readable string(s) (https://github.com/rodyo/FEX-seconds2human/releases/tag/v1.6), GitHub. Retrieved .

MATLAB Release Compatibility
Created with R2009b
Compatible with any release
Platform Compatibility
Windows macOS Linux
Categories
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Version Published Release Notes
1.6

See release notes for this release on GitHub: https://github.com/rodyo/FEX-seconds2human/releases/tag/v1.6
1.5.0.0

Description update
[linked to Github]
1.4.0.0

- Added 'decennium' as a time unit
- Implemented more robust error-checking
- Small documentation update
1.3.0.0

Updated contact info
1.2.0.0

- reduced the default verbosity, as suggested by Jos. The verbosity can now be changed with a second argument.

- Included (sec < 1) case, as suggested by Jesse.
1.1.0.0

updated code thanks to Jos' comments.
1.0.0.0

To view or report issues in this GitHub add-on, visit the GitHub Repository.
To view or report issues in this GitHub add-on, visit the GitHub Repository.