Checking the dates and times

I am having some trouble with developing code to see if the date inputted for the Testdate is one week old and if the date inputted for the Testdate isn't the current date for today should show an input for an error message to confirm the Testdate they inputted. So far I have:

Testdate=input('What is the test date?(dd-mm-yyyy)','s')
Teststr=convertCharsToStrings(Testdate);
TestT=ERRORT(Testdate);

Then here is the function with the error checking code:

if 
    Testdate=input('Confirm this test data: Y or N','s')
end

So I also would like if the user inputs Y, it continues to store the value and continue through the main script, but if inputs N, it allows the user to input a different Testdate to store.

Any suggestions or resolutions?

[Alexandra Philip]

Correction: If the test date is one week old from the current date today.

[Alexandra Philip]

So far I have,

formatIn='mm/dd/yyyy'
if datenum(Testdate,formatIn)~=datenum('now') 
    Testdate=input('Confirm this test data: Y or N','s')
    if Testdate=='N'
        Testdate=input('Input the correct test date.','s')
    end
end

within the function. However, this results in an error message:

Error using datenum (line 188)
DATENUM failed.

Error in ERRORT (line 4)
if datenum(Testdate,formatIn)~=datenum('now')

Error in Tumbleuser_final (line 7)
TestT=ERRORT(Testdate);

Caused by:
    Error using datevec (line 218)
    Failed to lookup month of year.

Any suggestions or resolutions?

Answer 1

[Adam Danz]

Why not use a UI such as

• https://www.mathworks.com/help/finance/uicalendar-graphical-user-interface.html
• https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/uidatepicker.html

Using your method, the date should be converted to datetime

Testdate=input('What is the test date (dd-mm-yyyy)? ','s');
TestdateDT = datetime(Testdate,'InputFormat','dd-MM-yyyy'); 

Then test if the date is within 1 week (True/False) and is equal to today (True/False)

isWithinOneWeek = days((datetime('now') - TestdateDT)) <=7; 
isToday = isequal(datetime('today'), TestdateDT); 

If you want the user to continually enter a date until it obeys the rules, put that within a while loop.

Modify this to your needs

isWithinOneWeek = false; 
while ~isWithinOneWeek
    Testdate=input('What is the test date (dd-mm-yyyy)? ','s');
    TestdateDT = datetime(Testdate,'InputFormat','dd-MM-yyyy'); 
    isWithinOneWeek = days((datetime('now') - TestdateDT)) <=7; 
end

One big flaw with this method is that it relys on the user to obey the command. For example, if the user uses slashes instead of dashes, you'll get an error: 21/07/2020.

This is why it's better to use more controlled methods of user input.