Converting Dates in the Cell Array into Serial Numbers

Hi, I am trying to convert the dates that are currently in a cell array into serial numbers so that they could be used in a plot. The source is a .csv file. datenum() doesn't work with cell arrays and cellfun(@datenum,serialDates) gives me an array with all identical serial numbers. I don't know what else I could do. I included below a sample of data and a part of the script. I would strongly appreciate any help. Please note: "Date Time" is a single column in a .csv file.

Date Time Vibration Temperature Current

7/25/2011-8:40:34 0.1314 114.3 49.5359

Script:

userCell = textscan(fid,'%s%s%s%s','Delimiter',',');
[dates,vibration,temperature,current]=userCell{1,1:4};
dates=dates(2:end,1);

Thank you!

Answer 1

[Fangjun Jiang]

It seems to work for me. "all identical serial numbers" may be just a visual thing. They are actually different. You can use datestr() to check.

test.txt

Date Time  Vibration  Temperature  Current

7/25/2011-8:40:34 0.1314  114.3  49.5359
7/25/2011-8:40:35 0.1314  114.3  49.5359
fid=fopen('test.txt','rt');
userCell =textscan(fid,'%s%f%f%f','HeaderLines',2);
dates=userCell{1};
a=datenum(dates)
b=datestr(a)
fclose(fid);

a =

    1.0e+005 *

      7.3471
      7.3471

b =

25-Jul-2011 08:40:34
25-Jul-2011 08:40:35

[Jan]

@Artem: As you see in this example, DATENUM does work with cell strings:

datenum({'7/25/2011-8:40:34', '7/25/2011-8:40:34'})

Answer 2

[Artem]

Thank you for your help!