Need help with datenum function

I'm using Matlab R2015b. I have "date" variable ( 178x1 cell ) inside a struct named "data". It consists of one column with multiple rows that consists of dates in dd/mm/yyyy format. Now I'm trying to convert them into numbers using datenum command,

dates = datenum(data.date, 'dd/mm/yyyy');

but it returns me with error.. What am I doing wrong? I've attached a screenshot of what the data looks like. Thanks in advance.

[Adhi Ariawan]

Additional note: I noticed I have non-date data on the first row.. How do I treat the first row as NaN data?

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

Note that the first row is the string ‘date’. The datenum function will fail on that, so start with the second row instead.

[Adhi Ariawan]

How can I do that? haha (Sorry I'm newbie)

[Star Strider]

My general solution is for you to address the rows of your array as:

dates = datenum(data.date(2:end), 'dd/mm/yyyy');

This is a guess, so make any necessary changes.

[Adhi Ariawan]

Sorry to bother again, your solution was great, but after using (2:end) I'm facing another problem:

Error using horzcat
Dimensions of matrices being concatenated are not consistent.

I got that error when trying to process the new 'date' with the other data inside of struct. So I was wondering if we can keep the first row as NaN or something. Thanks again.

[Star Strider]

My pleasure.

You have to use 2:end with every column.

No worries!

Answer 2

[Peter Perkins]

If you have R2015b, you will likely be happioer using datetimes rather than datenums:

dates = datetime(data.date(2:end),'Format','dd/mm/yyyy')

You may also want to use a table, rather than a scalar struct, but hard to say without seeing more.