how do I import date from .xls where cell contains numbers and letters

I am trying to import a .xls data file using [num, txt] = xlsread(filename);. I got the file to import giving me a number file and a text file. The text file includes the dates in format: [10-1-2005 0:05 MDT] all in one cell. I am trying to get the date and time into a datevector so that I can organize and graph the data in fractional years. Anyone know how I can extract the date and time and leave out the time zone?

Thanks in advance ryan

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

what is MDT?

[Leah]

It's to denote the timezone

Answer 1

[Leah]

try strrep and replace with ''

[Ryan Dillingham]

Worked perfectly, thanks Leah

Answer 2

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

s={'10-1-2005 0:05 MDT';'11-1-2005 0:05 MDT'}
s=cellfun(@(x) datenum(strrep(x,'MDT','')),s)
dat=datestr(s,'dd-mm-yyyy HH:MM')