How can I efficiently use an array of patterns to create figure titles?

I loop through many neurons that come with different structures. The neuron name contains a string pattern that indicates what structure it is and I want to use that to put the name in a figure title. I tried using a dictionary (2022b only), using strfind() and using contains() but couldn't get them to work. I ended up implementing it as a big if-elseif construct but I think there has to be a nicer solution.

regNames = ["Anterior HPC" "Posterior HPC" "Amygdala" "Enthorinal Cortex" "Pararhinal cortex"];
patahp = "u" + ("HR"|"HL"|"AHR"|"AHL");
patphp = "u" + ("PHR"|"PHL");
patamg = "u" + ("AR"|"AL");
patec = "u" + ("ECR"|"ECL");
patph = "uPCL";
patNames = [patahp,patphp,patamg,patec,patph]; % Keys from pattern names
d1 = dictionary(patNames,regNames); 
d1("uPCL"); % regular string key works
contains("uHR",patahp); % pattern detection works
d1("uHR"); % Why doesn't pattern detection work in dict keys?

strfind("uHR",patNames) % How could I use this solution?

figure()
cell_name = 'uAHL1_pos_1'; % names to test: 'uAL1_neg_1' 'uHL4_pos_4' 'uECL8_pos_3'
if contains(cell_name,patahp)
    title(regNames(1))
elseif contains(cell_name,patphp)
    title(regNames(2))
elseif contains(cell_name,patamg)
    title(regNames(3))
elseif contains(cell_name,patec)
    title(regNames(4))
elseif contains(cell_name,patph)
    title(regNames(5))
end

Answer 1

[Matt J]

One possibility:

regNames = ["Anterior HPC" "Posterior HPC" "Amygdala" "Enthorinal Cortex" "Pararhinal cortex"];
pats = "u" + ["HR","HL","AHR","AHL","PHR","PHL", "AR","AL", "ECR","ECL","uPCL"];
regnames=repelem(regNames,[4,2,2,2,1]);

cell_name = "uAHL1_pos_1"; % names to test: 'uAL1_neg_1' 'uHL4_pos_4' 'uECL8_pos_3'

tf=arrayfun(@(p)startsWith(cell_name,p),pats)

tf = 1×11 logical array
   0   0   0   1   0   0   0   0   0   0   0

assert(nnz(tf)>0,'Pattern not found')
assert(nnz(tf)<2,'Pattern ambiguous')

figure(); title(regnames(tf))