MATLAB: Left digits

Question

if I have a number such as 1234, how can I select the left 3 digits 123?

Answer 1

left3 = @(x)str2double(x(1:3));
left3(num2str(1234))

Perhaps?

Or so it doesn't error on numbers < 100

left3 = @(x)str2double(x(1:min(3,length(x))));