Problem with "datenum" and "datetime" functions

I need to extract date information from a formated date string. I have used both datenum and datetime functions but both of them returned an error. However, when I run the code on a different computer it worked well. Here is the simple code and the corresponding error:

Example for DATENUM:

datenum('11/02/2005 13:10:00','dd/mm/yyyy HH:MM:SS')

datenum('11/02/2005 13:10:00','dd/mm/yyyy HH:MM:SS')

↑

Error: Invalid text character. Check for unsupported symbol,

invisible character, or pasting of non-ASCII characters.

Example for DATETIME:

datetime('11/02/2005 13:10:00','InputFormat','dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss')

datetime('11.02.2005 13:10:00','InputFormat','dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm:ss')

↑

Error: Invalid text character. Check for unsupported symbol,

invisible character, or pasting of non-ASCII characters.

Why don't the functions work on my computer?

[Stephen23]

@Peter Valent: It might be a rogue non-ASCII character, e.g. a trailing special character that is not printed. Can you please click the paperclip button and upload a script that demonstrates this behavior. Please also tell us your OS and MATLAB version.

[Peter Valent]

@Stephen Cobeldick: I think that no example script is neccesary. When I copy the two lines of code given in the question I get the error on one computer but no error at another one.

The specs of the PC where it throws error are: WIN10, MATLAB R2018b - academic use.

The specs of the PC where it does not throw error are: WIN10, MATLAB R2017a - academic use.

Moreover, the following code also doesn't work on the first PC and works on the second PC:

sscanf('10/10/10 10:10:10','%d/%d/%d %d:%d:%d')

[Shubhra S]

I am also facing a similar error.The function works on one pc and doesn't work on another

Answer 1

[Sean de Wolski]

I was able to reproduce this by copying your code from above. It appears the opening ( is bad (right where the arrow is)

datetime('11/02/2005 13:10:00','InputFormat','dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss')

Deleting your ( and replacing with my ( fixed it.

Further investigating it looks like there is an invisible character after the (

int32('(')
ans =
  1×2 int32 row vector
      40   65279

[Peter Valent]

I have addet the following check, which solved the problem.

textToConvert = '11/02/2005 13:10:00';
acceptedCharacters = int32([' ','.','/',int32(arrayfun(@num2str,0:9)),':']);
textToConvert = textToConvert(ismember(int32(textToConvert),acceptedCharacters));
datenum(textToConvert,'dd/mm/yyyy HH:MM:SS')