read part of string

I have mat file like 'name.mat'

 name(1,1) = Italy
 name(2,1) = Rome, Italy

And I want to get 'Rome'.

I do not know the function that I want.

Please help me.

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

This will work, but no guarantee that it will easily generalise to more complicated situations:

name(1,1) = {'Italy'};
name(2,1) = {'Rome, Italy'};
x = findstr(name{2},',');
y = name{2}(1:x-1)

produces:

y =

Rome

This is only one way (and probably the simplest). There are many others.

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

Perhaps you want allwords: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/27184-allwords

name = {'Italy'; 'Rome, Italy'} % Cell array.  Use braces not parentheses.
words = allwords(name{2,1}) % words = 'Rome'    'Italy'

Or simply use normal indexing as usual to extract the first 4 characters of the contents of the second cell:

rome = name{2,1}(1:4)

[Image Analyst]

See the FAQ on cell arrays: http://matlab.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#What_is_a_cell_array.3F