Improving a function with user input

I'm wanting to allow the user to input the lot_type within the parking_cost1 function to prevent the current need to keep inputing times to finish the function. Do I just need to use another switch case?

function parking_cost1
%This function takes the input of days, hour, min and calculates the cost
%for each parking lot in order of 'Short Term','Long Term', 'Intermediate',
%and 'Economy. Times will need to be input in sucession. 
lot_type='Short Term';
a=input(['parking time in day,hour,minute format\n',...
    '(you can skip leading zeros)\n'],'s');
b=regexp(a,'\d*','match');
c=cellfun(@str2double,b);
%fill c with zeros as needed
if numel(c)<3
    c=[zeros(1,3-numel(c)) c];
end
time=24*60*c(1)+60*c(2)+c(3);
cost=parking_meter(lot_type,time);
if cost==0
    fprintf('parking is free\n')
else
    fprintf('total cost is $%.2f for the short term parking lot \n',cost)
end
lot_type='Long Term';
a=input(['parking time in day,hour,minute format\n',...
    '(you can skip leading zeros)\n'],'s');
b=regexp(a,'\d*','match');
c=cellfun(@str2double,b);
%fill c with zeros as needed
if numel(c)<3
    c=[zeros(1,3-numel(c)) c];
end
time=24*60*c(1)+60*c(2)+c(3);
cost=parking_meter(lot_type,time);
if cost==0
    fprintf('parking is free\n')
else
    fprintf('total cost is $%.2f for the long term parking lot\n',cost)
end
lot_type='Intermediate';
a=input(['parking time in day,hour,minute format\n',...
    '(you can skip leading zeros)\n'],'s');
b=regexp(a,'\d*','match');
c=cellfun(@str2double,b);
%fill c with zeros as needed
if numel(c)<3
    c=[zeros(1,3-numel(c)) c];
end
time=24*60*c(1)+60*c(2)+c(3);
cost=parking_meter(lot_type,time);
if cost==0
    fprintf('parking is free\n')
else
    fprintf('total cost is $%.2f for the intermediate term parking lot\n',cost)
end
lot_type='Economy';
a=input(['parking time in day,hour,minute format\n',...
    '(you can skip leading zeros)\n'],'s');
b=regexp(a,'\d*','match');
c=cellfun(@str2double,b);
%fill c with zeros as needed
if numel(c)<3
    c=[zeros(1,3-numel(c)) c];
end
time=24*60*c(1)+60*c(2)+c(3);
cost=parking_meter(lot_type,time);
if cost==0
    fprintf('parking is free\n')
else
    fprintf('total cost is $%.2f for the economy parking lot\n',cost)
end
end
function cost=parking_meter(lot_type,time)
%This function gives you the total cost of parking for airfair for 4 types
%of parking lots at Northwest Arkansas Regional
%types allowed: 'Short Term','Intermediate', 'Long Term', 'Economy'
%time should be entered in minutes
switch lot_type
    case 'Short Term'
        if 0<=time && time<=30
            cost=0;
        elseif 31<=time && time<=60
            cost=2;
        else
            %first hour is $2, each additional is $1
            cost=1+ceil(time/60);
            nth_days=1+floor(time/(60*24));
            %daily max $14
            cost=min(cost,14*nth_days);
        end
    case 'Intermediate'
        if 0<=time && time<=30
            cost=0;
        elseif 31<=time && time<=60
            cost=2;
        else
            %first hour is $2, each additional is $1
            cost=1+ceil(time/60);
            nth_days=1+floor(time/(60*24));
            %daily max $8
            cost=min(cost,8*nth_days);
        end
    case 'Long Term'
        if 0<=time && time<=30
            cost=0;
        elseif 31<=time && time<=60
            cost=2;
        else
            %first hour is $2, each additional is $1
            cost=1+ceil(time/60);
            nth_days=1+floor(time/(60*24));
            %daily max $7
            cost=min(cost,7*nth_days);
        end
    case 'Economy'
        if 0<=time && time<=15
            cost=0;
        elseif 16<=time && time<=60
            cost=2;
        else
            %first hour is $2, each additional is $1
            cost=1+ceil(time/60);
            nth_days=1+floor(time/(60*24));
            %daily max $5
            cost=min(cost,5*nth_days);
        end
end
end

[Geoff Hayes]

Mitchell - do you want to just have the user enter the time once and then choose the lot type? And continue choosing lot types for that same fixed time? Please clarify. Also note that the majority of your code is duplicated

a=input(['parking time in day,hour,minute format\n',...
    '(you can skip leading zeros)\n'],'s');
b=regexp(a,'\d*','match');
c=cellfun(@str2double,b);
%fill c with zeros as needed
if numel(c)<3
    c=[zeros(1,3-numel(c)) c];
end
time=24*60*c(1)+60*c(2)+c(3);
cost=parking_meter(lot_type,time);
if cost==0
    fprintf('parking is free\n')
else
    fprintf('total cost is $%.2f for the short term parking lot \n',cost)
end

so you may want to consider putting it in a helper function rather than repeating.

[Mitchell]

Yes, I wanting the user to input the time once and then select a lot. What do you mean by a helper function?

[Stephen23]

"What do you mean by a helper function?"

Repeating code is generally a bad idea. One easy way to avoid this it to simply place the relevant code in a function and call that function as required.