How to import an excel file and split a column

Hello guys! I hope everyone is health and safe...

I would like to ask a question please:

I am trying to import some excel files like the one I have attached, with Import option of Matlab R2019a. I want the first column, which contains date ant time together, ti be imported as two separate columns, one with date and one with time.

Is there a way to do it using Import?

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

[Peter Perkins]

The short answer is no. Your timestamps are stored in the spreadsheet as floating point numbers. But why do you need to split time and date during import?

Read in the data using readtable, then use the timeofday function on the datetime variable in your table to make a new time variable i nthe table, then subtract that from the date.

>> t = table(datetime(2020,19,1) + 5*days(rand(5,1)),rand(5,1))
t =
  5×2 table
            Var1             Var2  
    ____________________    _______
    02-Jul-2021 11:37:09    0.64467
    03-Jul-2021 00:55:09    0.52366
    03-Jul-2021 15:37:28    0.49436
    04-Jul-2021 08:32:34    0.36744
    03-Jul-2021 16:26:05    0.61592
>> t.Time = timeofday(t.Var1);
>> t.Date = t.Var1 - t.Time;
>> t.Var1 = []
t =
  5×3 table
     Var2        Time         Date    
    _______    ________    ___________
    0.64467    11:37:09    02-Jul-2021
    0.52366    00:55:09    03-Jul-2021
    0.49436    15:37:28    03-Jul-2021
    0.36744    08:32:34    04-Jul-2021
    0.61592    16:26:05    03-Jul-2021

[Daphne PARLIARI]

Thank you for your answer!

I want to split the column because the rest of my script is based on this logic, therefore I thought it would be easier to just split the column and proceed from there...