convert dates to specific format

how can I change the format of the dates in the column shown in the image to the format uuuuMMddHHmm?

[Chunru]

doc datetime

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

My guess is that you have unfortunately stored each date as one numeric value, whose digits just happen to coincide with the date units' digits. This is rather a misuse of numerics, and is best fixed by importing that data correctly, rather than trying to "fix" it later. But you can convert to a proper DATETIME object if required:

N = 200701022359 % ugh

N = 2.0070e+11

D = datetime(string(N),'Format','uuuuMMddHHmm')

D = datetime
   200701022359

Checking:

D.Year

ans = 2007

D.Day

ans = 2

D.Minute

ans = 59

Note that you should avoid deprecated functions DATENUM, DATESTR, and DATEVEC.

Answer 2

[KSSV]

t0 = datenum(today)   % probably you have datenums

t0 = 738721

t1 = datetime(datestr(t0))  % convert them to datetime 

t1 = datetime
   19-Jul-2022

t1.Format  % check the format 

ans = 'dd-MMM-uuuu'

t1.Format = 'uuuuMMddHHmm'  % change the format 

t1 = datetime
   202207190000

[Salma fathi]

Thank you for the quick reply.

When applying the provided lines I get the following error

DATESTR failed converting date number to date vector.

Error in datestr (line 202)
S = dateformverify(dtnumber, dateformstr, islocal);

Error in cateogorizing (line 337)
t1 = datetime(datestr(RO_data.Date));  % convert them to datetime

Caused by:
    Error using datevecmx
    Date number out of range.

Any advice how to fix it?

[Stephen23]

"Any advice how to fix it?"

1. understand how your date is currently stored.
2. use that knowledge to select a suitable tool to convert it to DATETIME.

[KSSV]

Attach your data.