How can I parse regional date and time strings returned by Windows XP in MATLAB 7.6 (R2008a)?

I am using a COM server which returns a date string to MATLAB using the regional settings of the Windows operating system. I would like to parse this string using the function DATEVEC without knowing the system's date and string format beforehand. For example, on certain computers, I might receive the following date and time string:

date = '5.6.2008';

time = '5*43*12 PM';

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

The ability to parse a Windows XP generated date or time string based on regional settings is not available in MATLAB.

As a workaround, you can use the WINQUERYREG function to extract the regional date and time formats from the Windows XP registry and then convert the Windows format specifiers to MATLAB format specifiers using REGEXPREP as shown below. You can then use the converted format specifiers to parse Windows-generated strings using DATEVEC. Note that not all Windows formats have a MATLAB equivalent.

%Obtain Windows XP Regional date and time formats from the registry

timesep = winqueryreg('HKEY_CURRENT_USER','Control Panel\International','sTime');

datesep = winqueryreg('HKEY_CURRENT_USER','Control Panel\International','sDate');

timefmt = winqueryreg('HKEY_CURRENT_USER','Control Panel\International','sTimeFormat');

datefmt1 = winqueryreg('HKEY_CURRENT_USER','Control Panel\International','sShortDate');

datefmt2 = winqueryreg('HKEY_CURRENT_USER','Control Panel\International','sLongDate');

%Convert the formats specifiers to match those of MATLAB

mltimefmt=upper(timefmt);

mltimefmt=regexprep(mltimefmt,'H+','HH');

mltimefmt=regexprep(mltimefmt,'M+','MM');

mltimefmt=regexprep(mltimefmt,'S+','SS');

mltimefmt=regexprep(mltimefmt,'T+','AM');

mldatefmt1 = regexprep(lower(datefmt1),'(?<!d)d(?!d)','dd');

mldatefmt1 = regexprep(mldatefmt1,'(?<!m)m(?!m)','mm');

mldatefmt2 = regexprep(lower(datefmt2),'(?<!d)d(?!d)','dd');

mldatefmt2 = regexprep(mldatefmt2,'(?<!m)m(?!m)','mm');

%Replace single P or A with PM or AM

datef = regexprep(date, '(P|A)(?!M)','$1M');

timef = regexprep(time, '(P|A)(?!M)','$1M');

%Parse date and time strings using DATEVEC

datevec(datef, mldatefmt1);

datevec(timef, mltimefmt);

For more information on the WINQUERYREG function execute the following at the MATLAB command prompt

doc winqueryreg