Build a verification function before passing to datenum -- something on the order of
>> ds={'20140630-12022';'201406-120223';'20140630-120224'};
>> cellfun(@(s) strfind(s,'-')==9 & length(s)==15,ds)
ans =
0
0
1
>>
This one checks for the proper length of date field and overall; hence the time field must be same length as well. Doesn't do anything about verifying reasonable values, of course.
regexp could be of use in verifying patterns, too, depending on how much qualifying you want to do.
