Unrecognized variable when using delimitedT​extImportO​ptions

I followed the example in the documentation for the command "delimitedTextImportOptions" to import from a file with a variable that I explicitly named "fecha":

varNames = ["ccaa_iso","fecha","num_casos","num_casos_prueba_pcr","num_casos_prueba_test_ac","num_casos_prueba_otras","num_casos_prueba_desconocida"];

varTypes = ["char","datetime", "int32", "int32", "int32", "int32", "int32" ];

delimiter = ",";

dataStartLine = 2;

extraColRule = "ignore";

opts = delimitedTextImportOptions("VariableNames", varNames, "VariableTypes", varTypes, "Delimiter", delimiter, "ExtraColumnsRule", extraColRule);

datosccaas26122020 = readtable("datos_ccaas_26-12-2020.csv", opts);

But then when I try to use the following command:

dies = datestr(fecha, "yyyymmdd");

it throws an error, telling me that fecha is not a recognized variable. But if I simply right-click on the .csv file and use the GUI to import the data, it then can read the variable fecha. So what's happening here?

[Stephen23]

Forcing meta-data (i.e. the timestamp) into the variable name is unlikely to be a good approach:

datosccaas26122020 = readtable(..)

Much better would be to use a name without meta-data in it, e.g.:

tbl = readtable("datos_ccaas_26-12-2020.csv", opts);
dies = datestr(tbl.fecha, "yyyymmdd");

[Mikel Cotillas]

Thank you too for the answer!

Answer 1

[Voss]

fecha would be a variable (i.e., a column) in the table datosccaas26122020, so the syntax would be:

dies = datestr(datosccaas26122020.fecha, "yyyymmdd");

[Mikel Cotillas]

Thank you very much, that was exactly it!

[Voss]

You're welcome!

[Campion Loong]

On separate note, as the table variable "fecha" is a datetime, datestr is not recommended for turning it into text any more. You can use either char or string (i.e. note the upper case "M" versus lower case "m" - datetime conforms to the Unicode standard):

dies = string(datosccaas26122020.fecha, "yyyyMMdd");