Testing faster methods to retrieve the current system time in Matlab m-files so that simulations are not slowed down as much.

faster_getsystemtime.m

duration_1 = 0;
duration_2 = 0;
iter = 100000;
for i=1:iter
  if mod(i,2) == 0
  	tic;
		a = now();
		duration_1 = duration_1 + toc;
	else
		tic;
		a = datenummx(clock);
		duration_2 = duration_2 + toc;
	end
end
disp(sprintf('Standard now() function takes %0.3f seconds to run %d iterations',duration_1,iter))
disp(sprintf('datenummx(clock) takes %0.3f seconds to run %d iterations',duration_2,iter))

% Outputs
% Standard now() function takes 2.063 seconds to run 100000 iterations
% datenummx(clock) takes 0.505 seconds to run 100000 iterations  ## REALLY ?! 4x faster than the standard function?