Help with splitting data

My data is a 272×1 cell array see below

    {'Geometry'  }
    {'X'         }
    {'Y'         }
    {'NR'        }
    {'X1'        }
    {'Y1'        }
    {'Easting'   }
    {'Northing'  }
    {'Height1'   }
    {'Def_Rate'  }
    {'Std_Dev'   }
    {'Height_unc'}
    {'Def_Rate_u'}
    {'D_20170729'}
    {'D_20170810'}
    {'D_20170816'}
    {'D_20170822'}

I need the dates 20170729 ,20170810 .... can anyone help ASAP

Answer 1

[dpb]

>> datetime(extractAfter(c(contains(c,'D_')),'D_'),'InputFormat','yyyyMMdd')
ans = 
  4×1 datetime array
   29-Jul-2017
   10-Aug-2017
   16-Aug-2017
   22-Aug-2017
>> 

Actually can simplify just a little to include the leading "D_" string as fixed string in the input format --

>> datetime(c(contains(c,'D_')),'InputFormat','''D_''yyyyMMdd')
ans = 
  4×1 datetime array
   29-Jul-2017
   10-Aug-2017
   16-Aug-2017
   22-Aug-2017
>> 

[Gad Samuel Ezerih]

Thank you!

Answer 2

[Jan]

With older Matlab versions:

match = strcnmp(data, 'D_', 2);
result = strrep(data(match), 'D_', '');