Reading string from an exel file using xlsread

Hello Everyone, How are you?

Well, I'm trying to read a Exel file with Missing Values using xlsread, but when I run the code, the date column is save as a number.

>> [a,b,c] = xlsread('001_xlsx.xlsx',1, 'B6:F12'); >> a

a =

     1.0e+04 *
      4.2433    0.0005    0.0005    0.0601         0
      4.2433    0.0005    0.0005    0.0598         0
      4.2433    0.0005    0.0004    0.0604         0
      4.2433    0.0005    0.0003    0.0582         0
      4.2433    0.0005    0.0003    0.0589         0
      4.2433    0.0005    0.0002    0.0595         0
      4.2433    0.0005    0.0002    0.0595         0
  >> b

b =

       {}
  >> c

c =

      [4.2433e+04]    [4.6700]    [5.2000]    [601.0680]    [0]
      [4.2433e+04]    [4.6600]    [4.6000]    [597.9430]    [0]
      [4.2433e+04]    [4.6800]    [3.7000]    [604.1940]    [0]
      [4.2433e+04]    [4.6100]    [3.4000]    [582.3580]    [0]
      [4.2433e+04]    [4.6300]    [2.8000]    [588.5880]    [0]
      [4.2433e+04]    [4.6500]    [2.2000]    [594.8170]    [0]
      [4.2433e+04]    [4.6500]    [1.8000]    [594.8170]    [0]

Dates in the exel file have this format (single column),

ans =

3/4/16 0:47
3/4/16 1:47
3/4/16 2:47
3/4/16 3:47
3/4/16 4:47
3/4/16 5:47
3/4/16 6:47

My questions, is how can I save that column as a string?, in that way, I can use datenum to convert that time format.

Thanks.

[Walter Roberson]

Your file is inconsistent. "Nro" 2136 and above have the date in "General" format, but 2137 and below have the date in custom date format.

[David du Preez]

Have a look at this link: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/292989#answer_227154