Best way to get date and time inputs from user and save as a datetime variable

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My App Designer app allows the user to input a date and time range (start date, start time, end date, end time). I have 2 date pickers and two edit fields for the times (strings 'hhmm'). I save the 4 inputs as fields in a struct s. What is the cleanest way to incorporate the time inputs into the date variables? Or is there a better approach? The below works, but I feel there should be a slicker way.
% construct the data subset timerange
startDateTime = datetime(s.StartDate) + ...
hours(str2double(s.StartTime(1:2))) + ...
minutes(str2double(s.StartTime(3:4)));
endDateTime = datetime(s.EndDate) + ...
hours(str2double(s.EndTime(1:2))) + ...
minutes(str2double(s.EndTime(3:4)));
subsetPeriod = timerange(startDateTime,endDateTime,'closed');

Accepted Answer

Stephen23
Stephen23 on 27 Apr 2023
Edited: Stephen23 on 29 Apr 2023
No conversion back-and-forth is required: your approach of adding a DATETIME and DURATION object is the correct one. Sadly the DURATION creation has a very limited set of accepted formats, otherwise this really would be a trivial task :( So until TMW makes DURATION more flexible, we need workarounds. Here are three approaches:
HM = '2359'; % 'hhmm'
DT = datetime(2023,04,27)
DT = datetime
27-Apr-2023
%Z0 = DT+duration(HM, 'InputFormat','hhmm') % what we want, but TMW won't allow.
Z1 = DT+duration([sscanf(HM,'%2d',[1,2]),0])
Z1 = datetime
27-Apr-2023 23:59:00
Z2 = DT+duration(regexprep(HM,'(..)(..)','$1:$2'), 'InputFormat','hh:mm')
Z2 = datetime
27-Apr-2023 23:59:00
Z3 = DT+duration([HM(1:2),':',HM(3:4)], 'InputFormat','hh:mm')
Z3 = datetime
27-Apr-2023 23:59:00
Checking:
isequal(Z1,Z2,Z3)
ans = logical
1

More Answers (1)

Kevin Holly
Kevin Holly on 27 Apr 2023
% construct the data subset timerange
startDateTime = datetime(s.StartDate + " " + s.StartTime, 'InputFormat', 'yyyy-MM-dd HHmm');
endDateTime = datetime(s.EndDate + " " + s.EndTime, 'InputFormat', 'yyyy-MM-dd HHmm');
subsetPeriod = timerange(startDateTime, endDateTime, 'closed');
  3 Comments
Kevin Holly
Kevin Holly on 27 Apr 2023
In that case,
% convert datetime values to strings with format 'yyyy-MM-dd'
startDateStr = datestr(s.StartDate, 'yyyy-MM-dd');
endDateStr = datestr(s.EndDate, 'yyyy-MM-dd');
% construct the data subset timerange
startDateTime = datetime(startDateStr + " " + s.StartTime, 'InputFormat', 'yyyy-MM-dd HHmm');
endDateTime = datetime(endDateStr + " " + s.EndTime, 'InputFormat', 'yyyy-MM-dd HHmm');
subsetPeriod = timerange(startDateTime, endDateTime, 'closed');
Not sure if it better than what you have.
Rich006
Rich006 on 27 Apr 2023
OK, I was hoping for a neater way. It seems silly to convert back and forth. It would be nice if there was a "get time also" option in the date picker or some way to attach a time to the datepicker.

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