Why does my .csv file create spaces between each of my data points? It makes it to where I cannot graph precipitation against the date.

% I have also attached the data I am trying to extract the data from

clearvars

clear all

clc

% Open data

fid=fopen('2022BRPREC.csv','r');

data=textscan(fid,'%s%s%s%s%s%s%s','headerlines',1,'delimiter',',');

fclose=(fid);

% Name 2022 Variables

date22=data{4};

prec22=data{5};;

figure

cc=plot(date22,prec22);

[Voss]

Can you attach the file?

[Jack Jones]

My bad it has been attached

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

T = readtable('2022BRPREC.csv')

T = 365×8 table
        STATION                        NAME                       DATE       PRCP    SNOW    TAVG    TMAX    TMIN
    _______________    ____________________________________    __________    ____    ____    ____    ____    ____

    {'USW00013970'}    {'BATON ROUGE METRO AIRPORT, LA US'}    2021-11-18    0.02      0     NaN      79      49 
    {'USW00013970'}    {'BATON ROUGE METRO AIRPORT, LA US'}    2021-11-19       0      0     NaN      67      42 
    {'USW00013970'}    {'BATON ROUGE METRO AIRPORT, LA US'}    2021-11-20       0      0     NaN      75      40 
    {'USW00013970'}    {'BATON ROUGE METRO AIRPORT, LA US'}    2021-11-21       0      0     NaN      78      59 
    {'USW00013970'}    {'BATON ROUGE METRO AIRPORT, LA US'}    2021-11-22     0.4    NaN     NaN      69      44 
    {'USW00013970'}    {'BATON ROUGE METRO AIRPORT, LA US'}    2021-11-23       0      0     NaN      65      37 
    {'USW00013970'}    {'BATON ROUGE METRO AIRPORT, LA US'}    2021-11-24       0      0     NaN      72      39 
    {'USW00013970'}    {'BATON ROUGE METRO AIRPORT, LA US'}    2021-11-25       0      0     NaN      75      54 
    {'USW00013970'}    {'BATON ROUGE METRO AIRPORT, LA US'}    2021-11-26       0      0     NaN      61      42 
    {'USW00013970'}    {'BATON ROUGE METRO AIRPORT, LA US'}    2021-11-27    0.01    NaN     NaN      59      34 
    {'USW00013970'}    {'BATON ROUGE METRO AIRPORT, LA US'}    2021-11-28    0.04    NaN     NaN      65      44 
    {'USW00013970'}    {'BATON ROUGE METRO AIRPORT, LA US'}    2021-11-29       0      0     NaN      67      40 
    {'USW00013970'}    {'BATON ROUGE METRO AIRPORT, LA US'}    2021-11-30       0      0     NaN      72      37 
    {'USW00013970'}    {'BATON ROUGE METRO AIRPORT, LA US'}    2021-12-01       0      0     NaN      76      42 
    {'USW00013970'}    {'BATON ROUGE METRO AIRPORT, LA US'}    2021-12-02       0      0     NaN      75      49 
    {'USW00013970'}    {'BATON ROUGE METRO AIRPORT, LA US'}    2021-12-03       0      0     NaN      75      52 

plot(T.DATE,T.PRCP)

[Jack Jones]

thank ya thank ya

Answer 2

[millercommamatt]

You're defining the columns as strings so the output is going to include whitespace.

You want something like:

...
    data = textscan(fid,'%s%s%{MM/dd/yyyy}D%f%f%f%f%f','headerlines',1,'delimiter',',');
...

[Jack Jones]

Thanks for the feedback! I edited my project and it is still giving an error when trying to define the date.

% Error using textscan

% Unable to read the DATETIME data with the format "yyyy-MM-dd". If the data is not a time, use %q to get

% text data.

I changed the date format to match what is in the data. How might this be fixed?

[Jack Jones]

...
    data=textscan(fid,'%s%s%{yyyy-MM-dd}D%f%f%f%f%f','headerlines',1,'delimiter',',');
...

This is what my code with the error looks like