MATLAB: Reading a CSV file with header and times

csvMATLAB

Good Afternoon,
I am having difficulty loading csv files into Matlab. The problem seems to be with the header (which contains strings) and the data values in two of the columns (they contain time values in 00:00 format).
I am able to ignore the header through use of the 'csvread' function, but Matlab won't load the time values and gives me the below errors.
EDU>> x = csvread('SUNY_070054005.csv', 1, 0)
??? Error using ==> dlmread at 145 Mismatch between file and format string. Trouble reading number from file (row 1, field 5) ==> :15,0
Error in ==> csvread at 50 m=dlmread(filename, ',', r, c);
The data in the CSV file are in the following format…
Date,Itime,Uglo,Udir,Udif,Stime,Sglo,Sdir,Sdif
1998-01-01,00:15,0,0,0,01:00,0,0,0
1998-01-01,01:15,0,0,0,02:00,0,0,0
I would use the wizard, but I have to import 281 csv files.
Any help would be appreciated.
Many Thanks,
Steven

Best Answer

Hi Steven,
The string you've got for the dates and times aren't automatically recognised as simple dates - you'll need to read them in as strings:
fid = fopen('myFile.txt')
HDRS = textscan(fid,'%s %s %s %s %s %s %s %s %s',1, 'delimiter',',')
DATA = textscan(fid,'%s %s %d %d %d %s %d %d %d','delimiter',',')
fclose(fid)
outCell = cell(size(DATA{1},1), length(HDRS));
for i = 1:length(HDRS)
    if isnumeric(DATA{i})
        outCell(:,i) = num2cell(DATA{i});
    else
        outCell(:,i) = DATA{i};
    end
end
myStruct = cell2struct(outCell, [HDRS{:}], 2);
Does this work for you? It worked for a small text file that I made from your input. You can convert stringed dates (and times) using the datestr function.
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