Problem with formatting operators - textscan

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JSL
JSL on 25 Sep 2013
Edited: Stephen23 on 8 Apr 2025
I'm trying to bring in some data from a .csv file, but I can't seem to get the formatting operators correct when using textscan(). I'm sure this problem is trivial for someone with more experience. My data is all on one line separated by commas. Format:
XX mins YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss, XX mins YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss, XX mins YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss,
Example data:
26 mins 2013-09-17 09:01:45, 29 mins 2013-09-18 16:53:12, 33 mins 2013-09-19 18:24:27,
After using fopen to open the file, I am trying to use textscan:
f = fopen('data.csv');
c = textscan(f,????,'Delimiter',',');
I've tried experimenting with different formatting operators at ????, but can't get anything that makes sense. I would like to extract the following as integers:
XX, YYYY, MM, DD, hh, mm, ss
Help?

Answers (1)

Stephen23
Stephen23 on 8 Apr 2025
Edited: Stephen23 on 8 Apr 2025
txt = '26 mins 2013-09-17 09:01:45, 29 mins 2013-09-18 16:53:12, 33 mins 2013-09-19 18:24:27,';
Directly obtaining the integers you requested:
tmp = textscan(txt,'%f %*[^ ]%f%f%f%f%f%f', 'EndOfLine',',', 'Delimiter',{'-',':'}, 'CollectOutput',true)
tmp = 1x1 cell array
{3x7 double}
tmp{1}
ans = 3×7
26 2013 9 17 9 1 45 29 2013 9 18 16 53 12 33 2013 9 19 18 24 27
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Or an alternative solution using DATETIME for the timestamp:
tmp = textscan(txt,'%f%*s%D%T', 'EndOfLine',',')
tmp = 1x3 cell array
{3x1 double} {3x1 datetime} {3x1 duration}
vec = tmp{1}
vec = 3×1
26 29 33
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dt = tmp{2}+tmp{3};
dt.Format = 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss'
dt = 3x1 datetime array
2013-09-17 09:01:45 2013-09-18 16:53:12 2013-09-19 18:24:27
dt.Year
ans = 3×1
2013 2013 2013
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dt.Month
ans = 3×1
9 9 9
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% etc...
dt.Second
ans = 3×1
45 12 27
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