what is the best way to plot dates?

So I have some data that I want to plot, but the points are not evenly space and I am struggling to create a graph. For example, I have the dates as:

07/07/2015 07/07/2015 04/08/2015 04/08/2015 01/09/2015 01/09/2015 06/10/2015 06/10/2015 03/11/2015 01/12/2015 01/12/2015 29/12/2015 29/12/2015 26/01/2016 26/01/2016 23/02/2016 23/02/2016 23/02/2016 08/03/2016 08/03/2016 22/03/2016 22/03/2016

and the corresponding values as:

91 5.91347086 57 7.962256484 47 6.8169175 72 7.696871529 53 9.854200762 63 1.16972852 61 3.669585297 63 9.22168862 52 9.237301232 56 2.713270456 114 5.395889039

What is the best way to create a graph out of this?

Answer 1

[Peter Perkins]

It would be good to post data that people can simply cut and paste.

You have 11 pairs of repeated dates, and what appears to be two data series. I guess you want to plot both series? In any recent version, MATLAB just plots dates. Nothing special. For example:

d = {'07/07/2015';'07/07/2015';'04/08/2015';'04/08/2015';'01/09/2015';'01/09/2015';'06/10/2015';'06/10/2015';'03/11/2015';'01/12/2015';'01/12/2015';'29/12/2015';'29/12/2015';'26/01/2016';'26/01/2016';'23/02/2016';'23/02/2016';'23/02/2016';'08/03/2016';'08/03/2016';'22/03/2016';'22/03/2016'};
xy = [91;5.91347086;57;7.962256484;47;6.8169175;72;7.696871529;53;9.854200762;63;1.16972852;61;3.669585297;63;9.22168862;52;9.237301232;56;2.713270456;114;5.395889039];
x = xy(1:2:end);
y = xy(2:2:end);
d = datetime(d(1:2:end));
plot(d,x,'b',d,y,'r')

[Jacob Barrett-Newton]

Sorry I am new to Matlab and have just kind of been thrown into the deep end so I am trying to learn a lot in a short amount of time. The repeated dates just represent multiple data values taken on the same day, so I would like to plot it all as one series.

[Peter Perkins]

It's your data, so you probably know, but it does seem like you have two series. In any case, you can still create a datetime vector, and use plot.

[Jacob Barrett-Newton]

Well I want to plot it as one series, so I am trying to use

d = {'07/07/2015';'07/07/2015';'04/08/2015';'04/08/2015';'01/09/2015';'01/09/2015';'06/10/2015';'06/10/2015';'03/11/2015';'01/12/2015';'01/12/2015';'29/12/2015';'29/12/2015';'26/01/2016';'26/01/2016';'23/02/2016';'23/02/2016';'23/02/2016';'08/03/2016';'08/03/2016';'22/03/2016';'22/03/2016'};
xy = [91;5.91347086;57;7.962256484;47;6.8169175;72;7.696871529;53;9.854200762;63;1.16972852;61;3.669585297;63;9.22168862;52;9.237301232;56;2.713270456;114;5.395889039];
plot(d,xy)

But it doesn't work. Tells me invalid first data argument