Did you just try a super obvious brute force approach using a for loop:
a = {'23*Ali*36' ; 'Veli*178' ; '99*Zeynep*'} ;
nameLengths = zeros(length(a), 3); % Preallocate.
for k = 1 : length(a)
thisCellContents = a{k};
starLocations = find(thisCellContents == '*') % Find indexes of stars.
% Extract the name
if length(starLocations) >= 2
% Extract length between start #1 and star #2.
nameLengths(k, :) = [starLocations(1), starLocations(2), starLocations(2) - starLocations(1) + 1];
elseif length(starLocations) >= 1
% One star. Start from the beginning.
nameLengths(k, :) = [1, starLocations(1), starLocations(1)];
else
% No stars.
nameLengths(k, :) = [1, length(thisCellContents), length(thisCellContents)]; % The whole thing.
end
end
nameLengths % Report to command window.
[maxLength, row] = max(nameLengths(:,3)) % Find the longest one - biggest separation.
longestRow = a{row} % Get the entire string, including the start.
% Extract the substring.
out = longestRow(starLocations(1) + 1 : starLocations(2) - 1)
I'm sure there are less obvious, but more cryptic methods that are shorter if you want to wait for one from someone else.
