Converting cell data into dates that can be plotted

This may be a very trivial question, but I am new to Matlab and have very little experience. I have data shown in the image. Column 1, 2 and 3 collectivley form a date, and Column 4 is the price on that specified date.

I want to be able to plot price against date, but have no idea how I would transform the data I have so that I can use those dates along the x-axis. Many of the other examples I have found show how it is done using regularly spaced dates, however these dates are irregularly spaced.

Any advice would be appreciated.Thanks

Answer 1

[dpb]

Nothing says values have to be uniform; those examples must be generating a date series rather than converting given dates. Assume you read the data into an array, X via xlsread, then

dn=datenum(x(:,3),x(:,2),x(:,1));  % args are yr, mo, day as req'd

Now plot against the datenum. If you have the latest versions there's a builtin set of time-aware plotting methods, if earlier then use datetick after plotting to set the x-axes characteristics as desired.

[Josh V]

Thanks for your help. I've got it now.