Can't get string to datetime conversion to work

There seems to be some sort of inconsistency in the converting to datetime code I missed.

q=datetime('2017-05-17 19:36:00', 'InputFormat','yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss')

this works just fine. However, when I am reading the input string '2017-05-17T19:36:00' from an array, stripping the T, and putting it in exactly the same, it fails to work. example:

%data{1}(n) has the string '2019-05-17T19:36:00'
b = strrep(data{1}(n),'T',' ');
disp(b);
%displaying displays 2017-05-17 19:36:00, just like the earlier statement
timestamp = datetime(b,'InputFormat',format);

When I do this, the error message:

Unable to convert '2017-05-17 19:36:00' to datetime using the format 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss'.

is displayed. Am i missing something? are these not exactly the same? Thanks for your help.

[Walter Roberson]

could you attach data{1} as a mat file so we can check for odd characters?

[Nathan Heller]

here you go

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

The very first entry in your data{1} has a leading U+FEFF character, which is a unicode Byte Order Mark character, but is to be interpreted as a Zero-Width Non-Breaking Space if it occurs anywhere other than the first position

[Nathan Heller]

how would I go about removing that programmatically? or does it not appear multiple times and i only need to remove it once?

[Walter Roberson]

It probably only occurs once, but to be sure, use another strrep to replace char(65279) with empty

[Nathan Heller]

Thanks for all your help!

Answer 2

[J. Alex Lee]

str = '2019-05-17T19:36:00';
fmt = 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss';

b = strrep(str,'T',' ');
disp(b);

2019-05-17 19:36:00

timestamp = datetime(b,'InputFormat',fmt)

timestamp = datetime
   17-May-2019 19:36:00

Works for me ?

[Nathan Heller]

I still get the same error when i use your code with str = data {1}(n), so i assume there must be some problem with the data file?

[Jim Benjamin]

Hi everyone,

I have a similar problem: I like to convert the string

s(1) = "11-Mrz-2025 10:03:47" to datetime using

s1 = datetime(s(1), 'InputFormat', 'dd-MMM-yyyy HH:mm:ss', 'Locale', 'de_DE') and I get the error

Error using datetime (line 257)

Unable to convert '11-Mrz-2025 10:03:47' to datetime using the format 'dd-MMM-yyyy hh:mm:ss' and locale 'de_DE'.

I do not know why this Input Format is not working.

[J. Alex Lee]

Looks like Mrz is not the "official" short literal month name for March in the de_DE localization

str_en = "11-Mar-2025 10:03:47"

str_en = "11-Mar-2025 10:03:47"

dt = datetime(str_en)

dt = datetime
   11-Mar-2025 10:03:47

string(dt,'dd-MMM-uuuu HH:mm:ss',"de_DE")

ans = "11-März-2025 10:03:47"

str = ["11-Mai-2025 10:03:47","11-Okt-2025 10:03:47","11-März-2025 10:03:47"]

str = 1x3 string array
    "11-Mai-2025 10:03:47"    "11-Okt-2025 10:03:47"    "11-März-2025 10:03:47"

datetime(str, "InputFormat", "dd-MMM-uuuu HH:mm:ss", "Locale", "de_DE")

ans = 1x3 datetime array
   11-May-2025 10:03:47   11-Oct-2025 10:03:47   11-Mar-2025 10:03:47

[Walter Roberson]

de_DE also uses 'Juni' and 'Juli' instead of 'Jun' and 'Jul'

From a 2017 posting of mine:

Marz = char([77 228 114 122]); %'März' -- but protect in case your system only uses 7 bit characters for .m files

date_strings = regexprep(date_strings, {'Mrz', 'Jun(?=\W)', 'Jul(?=\W)'}, {Marz, 'Juni', 'Juli'}, 'ignorecase');

dates = datetime(date_strings,'InputFormat', 'eee MMM d HH:mm:ss yyyy', 'locale', 'de_DE');