Change imported date into datetime format

Hi,

I have a cell array with many dates that were imported from an excel file.

Each cell array entry looks like this ie. 08/21/2020 (Aug).

I want to change the above format into a datetime format.

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

Try this:

de = '08/21/2020 (Aug)';
DT = datetime(de, 'InputFormat','MM/dd/yyyy (MMM)')

producing (using the default Format):

DT = 

  datetime

   21-Aug-2020

.

[Star Strider]

That Format only works with datetime (introduced in R2014b with significant updates in R2016b), that you apparently do not have access to.

To do the same with datenum and datestr, try this:

de = ['08/21/2020 (Aug)'; '09/21/2020 (Sep)']
DT = datenum(de, 'mm/dd/yyyy')
DS = datestr(DT)

producing:

DT =
      738024
      738055

DS =

  2×11 char array

    '21-Aug-2020'
    '21-Sep-2020'

So, just ignore the short month designation string in parentheses.

I created a duplicate for September to be certain it would work with more than one value in the column vector. It appears to work well with them.

.