MATLAB: Sort Cell array by data

cell arraydate

Hi all,
I have a cell array named 'Final' which contains dates in DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM:SS format and also a column relating to wind speed and wind direction. The array looks something like this:
'08/08/2006 18:00:00  0.57368      15.2205'
'15/12/1999 12:00:00  1.94849      15.3231'
'23/11/2013 09:00:00  1.33748      15.3277'
'24/01/2007 12:00:00  1.59253      15.4576'
'15/02/2005 12:00:00  1.16488      15.4618'
'21/05/2012 00:00:00  0.55439      15.5536'
'25/11/2010 06:00:00  0.78733      15.5557'
'21/03/2007 06:00:00  1.24811      15.5585'
'25/11/2008 18:00:00  1.20435      15.5773'
'19/05/1999 03:00:00  0.63412      15.6291'
I have tried using sort and sortrows, however neither of these function appear to be working.
I must also say that this array 'Final' has been created by another piece of matlab which splits a 17yr wind database into 30 degree sectors before writing this data to a series of .TXT files before being used by another program. However, the other program needs the dates to be in descending order.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards, Kristopher

Best Answer

See if this does what you want:
Final = {'08/08/2006 18:00:00  0.57368      15.2205'
         '15/12/1999 12:00:00  1.94849      15.3231'
         '23/11/2013 09:00:00  1.33748      15.3277'
         '24/01/2007 12:00:00  1.59253      15.4576'
         '15/02/2005 12:00:00  1.16488      15.4618'
         '21/05/2012 00:00:00  0.55439      15.5536'
         '25/11/2010 06:00:00  0.78733      15.5557'
         '21/03/2007 06:00:00  1.24811      15.5585'
         '25/11/2008 18:00:00  1.20435      15.5773'
         '19/05/1999 03:00:00  0.63412      15.6291'};
dn = cellfun(@(x) datenum(x(1:19), 'dd/mm/yyyy HH:MM'), Final);
[dns,ix] = sort(dn);
FinalSorted = Final(ix);
FinalSorted = 
      '19/05/1999 03:00:00  0.63412      15.6291'
      '15/12/1999 12:00:00  1.94849      15.3231'
      '15/02/2005 12:00:00  1.16488      15.4618'
      '08/08/2006 18:00:00  0.57368      15.2205'
      '24/01/2007 12:00:00  1.59253      15.4576'
      '21/03/2007 06:00:00  1.24811      15.5585'
      '25/11/2008 18:00:00  1.20435      15.5773'
      '25/11/2010 06:00:00  0.78733      15.5557'
      '21/05/2012 00:00:00  0.55439      15.5536'
      '23/11/2013 09:00:00  1.33748      15.3277'
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