How to collect datetime from text entry and use in plot?

I have a collection of data that is taken at specific times. I plot this data in the usual method by using plot(). I need to make changes to the x-axis limits so I use xlim() and get the two limits as datetime()

    tstart = datetime(2018,02,01,15,30,00);
    tend = datetime(2018,02,06,15,30,00);
    xlim([tstart tend]);

Suppose I want to get this dates and times from a text entry in a GUI. Namely, the 'edit text' feature. How do I type the start time and end time to two different 'edit text's and use it in the variables 'tstart' and 'tend'? I used the following technique axes(handles.axes1); plot((a{:,1}),(a{:,listValueAA+1}));

    startD = get(handles.edit2,'String');
    finishD = get(handles.edit3,'String');

    disp(startD);
    disp(finishD);
    tstart = datetime(startD);
    tend = datetime(finishD);
    xlim([tstart tend]);

But I get the following error.

Error using datetime (line 614)
Could not recognize the date/time format of
'2018,02,03,15,00,00'. You can specify a format
character vector using the 'InputFormat'
parameter. If the date/time text contains day,
month, or time zone names in a language foreign
to the 'en_US' locale, those might not be
recognized. You can specify a different locale
using the 'Locale' parameter.

Error in GUI_for_log>pushbutton1_Callback (line
156)
    tstart = datetime(startD);

What exactly should I change to get the data plotted according to the input datetime?

Answer 1

[dpb]

Almost there...you're trying to convert the string containing the date vector representation, but datetime doesn't know that input syntax --

Convert the string to a datevec:

   >> datetime(str2num('2018,02,03,15,00,00'))
ans = 
  datetime
   03-Feb-2018 15:00:00
>>

or, in your input routine

startD = str2num(get(handles.edit2,'String'));
finishD = str2num(get(handles.edit3,'String'));

Alternatively ask your user to input the date as a conventional date string; of course it needs to be in recognizable format and correct order...I don't do GUIs other than most rudimentary uigetfile or the like occasionally; don't suppose TMW has packaged a calendar control that you could just call directly have they?

[Chamath Vithanawasam]

Hey, thanks a lot! This worked perfectly. And regarding the calendar control, I just checked, and I think there is such a feature. https://www.mathworks.com/help/finance/uicalendar.html Perhaps I will incorporate that into my code.