MATLAB: Convert Date to DATENUM format

datedatenumforloopMATLAB

Hi everyone,
I have a .csv file with a list of dates in column 3 which I would like to convert to datenum format.
I'm new to matlab but from what I have learned so far, I think I should write code to do this for one line, and then apply a for loop so it applies to every line of data?
-my code suggests I have many .csv files but for now I only have one. I am writing code which in the future I will be able to apply to large data sets.
At the moment I have this:
%Convert date into datenum format-calculates time as the number of days
%from January 0, 0000.
dd = 'input_data';          %label input folder as 'dd'
nowd = cd;                  %marks current current directory as 'nowd'
cd(dd);                     %go to input folder (which is within CD)
d = dir('*.csv');           %mark all csv files within current folder
cd(nowd)                    %GO BACK TO date folder
%In the current .csv file, the date is in column 3.
    filename=d.name;
    disp(filename);
    fid=fopen(fullfile(dd,filename));
    tline=fgetl(fid);
    i=l;
    c = strsplit(tline,',');  %this moves down the rows, separating by comma???
    date = datenum(c{3},'dd-mm-yyyy');
I realise I haven't yet put in a for loop. I just wanted to try to get it to work for one line, but I'm not sure if I got my commands all mixed up, or if this is even the correct approach.

Best Answer

"which I would like to convert to datenum format."
Louise, you really don't want to do that. Any of it. Unless you are using a pretty old version of MATLAB, like pior to R2014b, I strongly recommend that you use readtable, and your timestamps will come in as datetimes. Then convert to a timetable. In R2019a, you can use readtimetable.
In versions older than about R2017b, you'll probably get text timestamps, not datetime, but you can convert.
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