MATLAB: Average/mean of datetime hours and minutes ITSELF – not corresponding embedded data

datetime datenum

How to I compute the mean/average time of a datetime array containing hours and minutes?
rowMin =
20×1 datetime array
09:00
09:10
09:00
09:14
09:59
09:05
09:00
09:35
13:15
09:00
09:00
15:00
09:35
10:15
14:10
16:35
09:00
11:15
09:00
10:20
How to I compute the mean/average time?
rowMin.Format='HH:mm'
mean(rowMin)
Does not work. Neither converting to table and subsequently timetable does:
rowMinTable=table(rowMin)
rowMinTimetable=table2timetable(rowMinTable)
dt = minutes(30);
output = retime(table2timetable(rowMinTable),'regular','linear','TimeStep',dt)
Also, converting to datenum to compute mean and then revert to datetime is not the solution, since it uses the dates as well (I am ONLY interested in the mean of the hours and minutes HH:MM):
rowMin.Format='HH:mm';
rowMinDatenum=datenum(rowMin)
rowMinDatenumMean=mean(rowMinDatenum)
rowMinMean=datetime(rowMinDatenumMean,'ConvertFrom','datenum')
This question is also asked on stack exchange:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65324040/average-mean-of-datetime-hours-and-minutes-itself-not-corresponding-embedded-d

Best Answer

Changing the format does not change the underlying data. It just changes how it appears.
I think you would have to convert your datetimes to durations by subtracting the date, and compute the mean duration. Do the times all come from the same day?
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