Converting cell array to matlab datetime format

Hi,

I have a cell array with dates like this '03.08.2003 23:00:00.000 GMT+0200'

I want the cell array to be converted to a datetime array. Has anyone got a suggestion for that?

[Mohammad Sami]

datetime support cellstring as input.

DateStrings — Text representing dates and times

character array | cell array of character vectors | string array

Use with the InputFormat flag. see documents for the formatting.

[AA]

>> dt = datetime('03.08.2003 23:00:00.000 GMT+0200', 'InputFormat', 'dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm')
Error using datetime (line 616)
Unable to parse '03.08.2003 23:00:00.000 GMT+0200'
as a date/time using the format 'dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm'.

[AA]

I get an error as above. I need for datetime to ignore .000 GMT+0200

Answer 1

[Mohammad Sami]

we can replace the gmt with utc

t = {'03.08.2003 23:00:00.000 GMT+0200'};
t = strrep(t,'GMT','UTC');
t = datetime(t,'InputFormat','dd.MM.uuuu HH:mm:ss.SSS ZZZZZ','TimeZone','UTC');
t.TimeZone = '+02:00';

Answer 2

[Ameer Hamza]

It depends on how you are trying to save the datetime values. For example, this convert save all values in UTC

A = {'03.08.2003 23:00:00.000 UTC+0200', ...
    '07.08.2003 10:00:00.000 UTC+0300', ...
    '09.08.2003 15:00:00.000 UTC+0500'};
dt = datetime(A, 'InputFormat', 'dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS ZZZZ', 'TimeZone', 'UTC')
dt = 
  1×3 datetime array
   03-Aug-2003 21:00:00   07-Aug-2003 07:00:00   09-Aug-2003 10:00:00

Following will convert to cell array of datetime values with local time zones

A = {'03.08.2003 23:00:00.000 UTC+0200', ...
'07.08.2003 10:00:00.000 UTC+0300', ...
'09.08.2003 15:00:00.000 UTC+0500'};

offset = cellfun(@(x) {x(end-4:end)}, A);
dt = cellfun(@(D,Z) {datetime(D, 'InputFormat', 'dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS ZZZZ', 'TimeZone', Z)}, A, offset)