MATLAB: Aren’t the locale times converted to UTC time

datetimeMATLABtimezone

Hello all,
I would like to convert some dates that are taken with the Amsterdam TimeZone into UTC TimeZone, reading Matlab doc I should use datetime combined wit the the TimeZone option. I have done so, but my time once converted keeps staying in the Amsterdam local time, I know that it should be two hours less in UTC.
Here below the proccess I use, myDatesLocal are Amsterdam timezone based, so array b should stay the same as it does, however, array a should change to two ours earlier. I would expect somehting like 12-Apr-2018 12:51:36 for the first date.
K>> myDatesLocal = myDates(1:3)
myDatesLocal =
    3×1 cell array
      '12/04/18 14:51:36'
      '12/04/18 14:52:36'
      '12/04/18 14:53:36'
K>> b =datetime(myDatesLocal,'InputFormat','dd/MM/yy HH:mm:ss','TimeZone','Europe/Amsterdam')
b = 
    3×1 datetime array
     12-Apr-2018 14:51:36
     12-Apr-2018 14:52:36
     12-Apr-2018 14:53:36
K>> a =datetime(myDatesLocal,'InputFormat','dd/MM/yy HH:mm:ss','TimeZone','UTC')
a = 
    3×1 datetime array
     12-Apr-2018 14:51:36
     12-Apr-2018 14:52:36
     12-Apr-2018 14:53:36
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks in advance!

Best Answer

No, when you create your a, you're simply telling matlab that the 14:51 is measured in the UTC timezone. At no point do you tell matlab that it is measured in Amsterdam timezone but to be displayed in UTC.

The correct way to do what you want is to create your datetime in the Amsterdam timezone, then tell matlab to change the timezone to UTC:

>> myDatesLocal = {'12/04/18 14:51:36'
                   '12/04/18 14:52:36'
                   '12/04/18 14:53:36'};
>> b = datetime(myDatesLocal,'InputFormat','dd/MM/yy HH:mm:ss','TimeZone','Europe/Amsterdam')
b = 
  3×1 datetime array
   12-Apr-2018 14:51:36
   12-Apr-2018 14:52:36
   12-Apr-2018 14:53:36

>> b.TimeZone = 'UTC'
b = 
  3×1 datetime array
   12-Apr-2018 12:51:36
   12-Apr-2018 12:52:36
   12-Apr-2018 12:53:36
Related Question