Indexing into a structure to retain/remove elements based on a string

I have a variable containing a string for one eye (i.e. selectedEye = LEFT) and a struct called "x" with 2 fields:

x =

     eye: {1x1938 cell}
    timestamp: [1x1938 double]

Each cell in the field "eye" contains the string "LEFT" or "RIGHT". What code would I use to retain cells and corresponding timestamps for just the left eye (i.e. deleting eye/timestamp entries for one eye)?

I tried the following to try to obtain a logical:

x.eye = x.eye(regexp(cellstr(selectedEye),x.eye))

...but received an error ("Function 'subsindex' is not defined for values of class 'cell'.")

Answer 1

[Bruno Luong]

retain = strcmpi(X.eye,'LEFT')); % selectedEye is 'LEFT'
X.eye = X.eye(retain); % somewhat useless assignment
X.timestamp= X.timestamp(retain);

[Al_G]

Thanks! I thought I might be overcomplicating it, but couldn't figure out how.

Could you clarify your comment about the useless assignment? I'm not sure I understand it.

[Bruno Luong]

It hurts my eye to see 1000 cell string with 'LEFT' inside all of them.

[James Tursa]

I agree with Bruno. Since you already know exactly what is in X.eye by the way you constructed it, do you really even need it at all?

[Al_G]

Very good point, it's gratuitous. I'll remove it completely. Thanks!