Converting Matlab's datenum format to Python

Question

I just started moving from Matlab to Python 2.7 and I have some trouble reading my .mat-files. Time information is stored in Matlab\'s datenum format. For those who are not

Answer 1

Here's a way to convert these using numpy.datetime64, rather than datetime.

origin = np.datetime64('0000-01-01', 'D') - np.timedelta64(1, 'D')
date = serdate * np.timedelta64(1, 'D') + origin

This works for serdate either a single integer or an integer array.