Opening a new figure window in SciLab

To open a new graphics window in SciLab use
h = scf(fig_num).

Reading "dates and time" in Matlab

If given a .txt data file with date entries enclosed in "quotes", open in xls and save as .csv. In Matlab call with textread and for the column corresponding to the date, use the format %q.

Counting the incidence of a name

In OpenOffice spreadsheet, suppose I want to count how many times a name appears, I found that one can use the countif function with the following syntax:

=countif( <range of cells to look at>;"="&<pattern>)

can be

"Name"
or
a cell such as
F65.

Caveat: This function is very strict with pattern matching. A space at the end of the name will result in no match so be careful.