MATLAB: Create vector based on string data

Question

cell_array = {
'FA.EA';
'FA.EB';
'FA.EC';
'FA.EA';
'FA.EB';
'FB.EC';
'FB.EA';
'FB.EB';
'FC.EC';
'FC.ED';
'FC.EA';
'FC.EB'}

Based on the above cell_array i wanted to create 2 vectors.

vector1 = [1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 3]; % based on the first 2 characters FA FB and FC 

The 3 categories can increase. It must work for any data (FA FB FC FD FE FF…)

vector2 = [1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2]; % based on the charcters EA EB EC ED

Answer 1

S = {
'FA.EA';
'FA.EB';
'FA.EC';
'FA.EA';
'FA.EB';
'FB.EC';
'FB.EA';
'FB.EB';
'FC.EC';
'FC.ED';
'FC.EA';
'FC.EB'}
v1 =  cellfun(@(x) x(1:2),S,'un',0) ;
[c,ia,v1] = unique(v1) ;
v1
v2 =  cellfun(@(x) x(4:5),S,'un',0) ;
[c,ia,v2] = unique(v2) ;
v2