Reading in 8 and then 16 characters using regexp on one line - NASTRAN data file

So I'm writing a program that reads in NASTRAN data file entries. Usually you could read it in 8 characters at a time to get the right numbers, or if it's separated by commas I could use regexp split. However, sometimes it looks like this:

The * entries are 8 characters and then 16 for everything after. The other examples shown like PBAR and CTRIA3 can be read in 8 characters at a time throughout. If I have it so that the first line is a 1x60 char in the first column of a 700000x2 cell and the second line is a 1x44 char in the second column, how can I separate the values into a 1x5 cell in the first column and a 1x4 cell in the second column of a different variable?

I'm mostly asking how to read in 8 characters for the first word and then 16 for every number after if I normally do this for 8 characters:

tok=regexp(all,'.{1,8}','match');

I'm doing the following if "all" is the 700000x2 cell and separate does something like the line above depending on the type of entry:

[~, width]=size(all);

for i=1:width

    All(:,i)=cellfun(@separate,all(:,i), 'UniformOutput', false);

end

Any advice on how to do this better is appreciated as well. Also note that it isn't always 4 numbers after the entry name (it can be up to 9 but sometimes only 1)

Answer 1

[Megna Hari]

Nevermind you guys, I figured it out:

    a=lin(1:8);
    b=lin(9:length(lin));
    tok1=regexp(b,'.{1,16}','match');  
    tok=horzcat(a, tok1);

If you have a better way to do it you can still comment below :)