Extract a single datetime from a cell array of datetimes

Hello!

Data sent to me has, among other things, a cell array of datetimes, e.g.

K>> input_struc.event_date_time

ans =

2058×1 cell array

{[23-Sep-2020 14:13:54]}

{[23-Sep-2020 14:24:43]}

{[23-Sep-2020 15:31:41]}

{[23-Sep-2020 15:56:37]}

...

I have another cell array of numbers that have a CR in them.

If I run using this code, it works (since I have just defined the starting_event_date as char:

starting_event_date = 'junko';

%starting_event_date = datestr(input_struc.event_date_time(ident(1)));
starting_event_serial_number = str2double(input_struc.serial_number(ident(1)));
set(handles.current_sn_and_date_text,'String',['SN ',num2str(starting_event_serial_number),' at ',starting_event_date]);

However, if I decomment the starting_event_date line, or try some other way to get the datetime out of the cell, it doesn't work.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Doug Anderson

Answer 1

[Voss]

Use curly braces to access the contents of a cell array, and it is recommended to use char() instead of datestr() to convert a datetime to text.

starting_event_date = char(input_struc.event_date_time{ident(1)});

[Douglas Anderson]

Thank you! Cells have always been a bit of a mystery to me, much appreciated!