converting a date column with yyyymmdd to matlab date number?

Hi ,

I have a double(not a string)column where each observation is a number with the following format yyyymmdd.How can I convert this column to a column of matlab date numbers. for example, how can I convert 19960530 to 729175

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

This seems to work:

ymdCol = [19960530; 19960531; 19960601; 19960602]                       % Create Column
DN = datenum(num2str(ymdCol), 'yyyymmdd')

ymdCol =
    19960530
    19960531
    19960601
    19960602

DN =
      729175
      729176
      729177
      729178

Answer 2

[Peter Perkins]

Danielle, you may have your reasons for wanting a datenum, but I'd suggest using datetime, for which there's an easy conversion:

>> datetime([19960530;19960531],'ConvertFrom','yyyymmdd')
ans = 
  2×1 datetime array
   30-May-1996 00:00:00
   31-May-1996 00:00:00