Using a cell array in functions

Hello,

After reading in a .txt file a cell array is created with "date" and "time" as a string and a third column with values. When I try to use this cell array as input for a function an error occurs. Now there's an easy way around, say the cell array is:

import{1,1}
then
date=import{1,1}.date;
time=import{1,1}.time;
demand=import{1.1}demand;

And these can be used as input

However this is not elegant and possibly not the right way, although the solution may be obvious I could not find the solution.

Peter