find corresponding dates in matlab

Question

what is the best way of finding which dates are consistent among differnet variables. For example:

a = 
    2010-04-23 12:45
    2010-04-23 13:00    
    2010-04-23 13:15    
    2010-04-23 13:30    
    2010-04-23 13:45    
    2010-04-23 14:00
    2010-04-23 14:15

b = 
        2010-04-23 12:45
        2010-04-23 13:00    
        2010-04-23 13:15    
        2010-04-23 13:30    
        2010-04-23 13:45    
        2010-04-23 14:00
        2010-04-23 14:15

should return

c = 
      1
      1
      1
      1
      1
      1
      1

where both a and b are character strings.

Answer 1

Engineero is correct assuming they are exactly the same format.

I read your question as you having dates of different formats, so 4-25-13 and 04.25.2013 would also return a 1 (for the same date)

In this case, store the datenum of each str in a vector datesA(i) = datenum(a{i}) , repeat for your B cell array, and then compare the vectors c=(A==B) to get your result

Answer 2

If a and b are cell arrays of strings, then you can just use:

c = strcmp(a, b)

You would define a = {date_a1; date_a2; ...} a = {date_a1; date_a2; ...} a = {date_a1; date_a2; ...} and b = {date_b1; date_b2; ...} b = {date_b1; date_b2; ...} b = {date_b1; date_b2; ...} using that syntax to build a cell of strings. You reference an element in a cell almost the same way as you would an array. If you want the third result of c , you would type c{3} .

Documentation on strcmp here .