Extract a specific part of cell array values

Question

I have a cell array with values similar to the following one

13:41:54.879

I would like to extract only 13:41 part of the given value and mitigate the rest. I tried various combinations of extractBefore() and extractAfter() but couldn't get it.

Answer 1

You can use a regular expression to match the pattern "digits, colon, digits":

c = {'13:41:54.879', '1:22:33.45679'};
result = regexp(c, '\d+:\d+', 'match', 'once');

gives

result =
  1×2 cell array
    {'13:41'}    {'1:22'}