Manipulate strings in a table- remove leading numbers if present

I have strings in a table that I would like to strip the leading 'numerical group' of characters from if they are present- and they are not always present. The 'numerical group' does not have to be a real number- 12.345.6789 is possible, but it will always be made up of numbers and decimal points.

The 'numerical group' may come in many possible length permutations, so counting number of places will not work. The string I want to keep may also have numbers and decimal places in it, but I only want to remove this first 'group' of numbers. Described this way, it seems like a regular expression may get the job done.

If numbers do appear at first, there will always be a space between them and the rest of the string I want to keep. There may be more spaces, I would only want to eliminate everything before the first space. Described that way, an 'IF number/decimal THEN remove all before first space delimiter' loop may work.

Or there may be (probably...) some simpler solution here. I am struggling with handling it within a table as much as I am the regular expression or loop part.

The strings are currently in a categorical table variable, and while I doubt I can do this without converting them, I'd like them to end up that way.

names={'1 HEAD 123';'1.10 BODY123 456';'1.5 BODY/HEAD';'22.456 BODY';'BODY123';'1.11.123.1234 HEAD 123'};
T=table(names);
T.names=categorical(T.names)

T = 6×1 table
            names         
    ______________________

    1 HEAD 123            
    1.10 BODY123 456      
    1.5 BODY/HEAD         
    22.456 BODY           
    BODY123               
    1.11.123.1234 HEAD 123

solution={'HEAD 123';'BODY123 456';'BODY/HEAD';'BODY';'BODY123';'HEAD 123'};
S=table(solution);
S.solution=categorical(S.solution)

S = 6×1 table
     solution  
    ___________

    HEAD 123   
    BODY123 456
    BODY/HEAD  
    BODY       
    BODY123    
    HEAD 123   

Answer 1

[Voss]

load S
solution = regexprep(names,'^[\d\.]+\s+','')

solution = 6×1 cell array
    {'HEAD 123'   }
    {'BODY123 456'}
    {'BODY/HEAD'  }
    {'BODY'       }
    {'BODY123'    }
    {'HEAD 123'   }

[Marcus Glover]

Perfect, thanks so much!!

[Voss]

You're welcome!