It isn't necessary to loop through the char array. You could do something like this:
y = { '10/5/05' ; '18/2/2004' ; '3/3/2003' }
lastFour = cellfun(@(x)x(end-3:end),y)
You can create a logical array with this information.
k = cellfun(@(x) ~isempty(x),strfind(lastFour,'/'))
years = zeros(length(y),1)
years(~k) = str2double(lastFour(~k))
years(k) = 2000 + str2double(lastFour{k}(3:4))
I think you might find it worthwhile to go back to some of your old posts and see some of the solutions given. This is a solution to the specific question you asked, but there is a better solution to your general problem.
