MATLAB: How to convert a cell array of “random dates in the year” into time in year

cell arraydatetime series

For ex: My input vector has random dates like 1993-4-1,1993-4-28 etc.Output should be 1993.000,1993.0039,1993.0078.I have used different functions (datevector, datenum etc). But they convert the date either to date numbers (730990) or yr month day format; not in the above output form. Btw I have to extract the input array from a .mat file. Thanks…

Best Answer

One possibility:
datestrs = {'1993-4-1'; '1993-4-28'};                               % Date String Cell Array
dnvct = datenum(datestrs, 'yyyy-mm-dd');                            % Convert To Date Numbers
dateyr = str2num(datestrs{1}(1:4));                                 % Get Year (Numeric)
range_yr_dn = datenum([dateyr 1 1 0 0 0; dateyr 12 31 23 59 59]);   % Start, End Of Year
range_yr_dn_diff = diff(range_yr_dn);                               % Year Range
year_fraction = (dnvct - range_yr_dn(1))./range_yr_dn_diff;         % Year Fraction For Each Input Date
Result = [repmat(dateyr, size(year_fraction,1), 1) + year_fraction] % Year Fraction In Desired Format
Result =
         1993.2
         1993.3
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