Convert cell array of latitudes to array

I have a array of cells containing latitudes in the format {'50.01.234';'etc} how can i convert this into something meaningfull in which i will be able to produce a grid from later?

[Walter Roberson]

Is 50.01.234 to be a single specification? For example does it mean 50 degrees, 01 minutes, and 234 seconds, which would be the same thing as 50 degrees, 4 minutes and 54 seconds?

[aaron Harvey]

sorry i should have specified this. Its actually deg and decimal , so 50.01.234 would be 50degrees and 01.234 minutes. i would like to be able to take them from the array of cells eventually to be able to plot the points on a grid map

Answer 1

[KSSV]

k = {'1' ; '3' ; '4' ; '7' ; '10'} ;   % be your cell array
N = length(k) ;                        % gives number of elements in cell array
lon = zeros(N,1) ;                     % Initialize the lon array  
for i = 1:length(k)                    % Loop for every element 
    lon(i) = str2num(k{i}) ;           % combert sring/ char to number
end

[aaron Harvey]

I'm affraid this hasn't worked, it handles numbers such as your example fine but it does not handle the second decimal point well such as 50.01.234

Answer 2

[Jan]

Are you sure that you get 50 deg, 1.234 min and not 50 deg 1 min 234 sec (while the last value is a typo only)?

Data  = {'50.01.234'; '60.06.345'};
Str   = sprintf('%s#'m Data{:});
Value = sscanf(Str, '%i.%f#', [2, numel(Data)]);
Deg   = Value(1, :) + Value(2, :) / 60;

Answer 3

[Walter Roberson]

paired_numeric = str2double( regexp(TheCellArray(:), '\.', 'split', 'once') );
degrees = paired_numeric(:,1) + paired_numeric(:,2) / 60;