How do I convert a string to a date?
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Joel Abrahams
on 17 Jul 2017
Commented: Michael Connolly
on 28 Mar 2023
Currently I have the string:
2017-03-18 03:26:42.000000
I want to convert this to a date, and I use the following function:
datetime(my_string,'InputFormat','yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:SS')
However, when I do this I get the following error:
Unable to parse '2017-03-18 03:26:42.000000' as a date/time using the format 'yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:SS'.
I have also tried
datetime(my_string,'InputFormat','yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:SSSSSSSSS')
and
datetime(my_string,'InputFormat','yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:SS.SSSSSSS')
But none of these seem to work. How would I go about doing this?
0 Comments
Accepted Answer
Guillaume
on 17 Jul 2017
Edited: Guillaume
on 17 Jul 2017
Carefully read the documentation of the Format property. The month identifier is uppercase M and the minute identifier is lowercase m. The seconds field is lowercase s with the fractional part as uppercase S. So:
datetime(my_string,'InputFormat','yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.S')
if you want to display the fractional seconds by default:
datetime(my_string,'InputFormat','yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.S', 'Format', 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS')
2 Comments
Douglas Leaffer
on 22 Jan 2022
The date and time vectors are the same length. I think perhaps the problem lies with the way the .txt file is imported. I have attached an excerpt of the file if you have bandwidth to suggest further help. The coumns of interest are date = column 7; time = column 8
More Answers (1)
Rik
on 17 Jul 2017
It is a bit confusing, but the capital S only denotes the fraction of a second, so not the second itself. The code below works.
my_string='2017-03-18 03:26:42.000000';
datetime(my_string,'InputFormat','yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSSSSS')
5 Comments
Amini
on 3 Feb 2022
in this way it works:
DateStrings = {'24/09/2021:10:56:23'};
t = datetime(DateStrings,'InputFormat','dd/MM/yyyy:HH:mm:ss')
But my date is 24/Sep/2021:10:56:23
and in this way it doesn't work
DateStrings = {'24/Sep/2021:10:56:23'};
t = datetime(DateStrings,'InputFormat','dd/MM/yyyy:HH:mm:ss')
%again, beside the problem of two extra characters
Amini
on 3 Feb 2022
I found it how to eliminate the extra characters, using erase but still stacked with MONTH part
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