how to convert cell vector to char vector?

hi, i would like to convert a cell vector which is:

1509
1803
'V20E'
1706
1706
'V21N'
1507
1927

to a char vector. then i need to "read" only the second and third character, for example from 1509 to 50.

Answer 1

[DGM]

If there's little control over what's in the cell array, here's one way. This can probably be simplified.

C = {1509; 1803; 'V20E'; 1706; 1706; 'V21N'; 1507; 1927};

charout = repmat(' ',[numel(C) 2]); % preallocate
for k = 1:numel(C)
    if isnumeric(C{k}) && isscalar(C{k})
        cc = num2str(C{k});
    elseif ischar(C{k}) && isvector(C{k})
        cc = C{k};
    else
        error('C(%d) is neither a scalar number nor a char vector',k)
    end
    charout(k,:) = cc(2:3);
end
charout

charout = 8×2 char array
    '50'
    '80'
    '20'
    '70'
    '70'
    '21'
    '50'
    '92'

If the output needs to be a vector, just use reshape().

charout = reshape(charout.',[],1).'

charout = '5080207070215092'