Let's break this line of code down into pieces. I've commented it out so I can run code later in this answer.
First section of code
The section settingsSet.podList refers to the table in the first picture in the post. That does look like a table array. So this section seems reasonable. Second section of code, part 1
The section settingsSet.podList(currentPod,VarNames) will return a table consisting of the rows referred to by currentPod and the variables referred to by VarNames. I believe from the fact that you said currentPod is 'SPODD8' that you wanted this to retrieve the first row in settingsSet.podList, but that's not what it does. Sure, this looks like it should be the same as the "Index by Row Names" section on this documentation page, but the first variable in the picture is not a set of row names. Compare: LastName = LastName(1:5);
noRowNames = table(LastName, Age)
noRowNames =
LastName Age
____________ ___
{'Smith' } 38
{'Johnson' } 43
{'Williams'} 38
{'Jones' } 40
{'Brown' } 49
lastNameRowNames = table(Age, RowNames=LastName)
lastNameRowNames =
Age
___
Smith 38
Johnson 43
Williams 38
Jones 40
Brown 49
The lastNameRowNames table has row names; I can index into it using 'Johnson', for example, to obtain row 2.
lastNameRowNames('Johnson', :)
But I can't index into noRowNames using 'Johnson' any more than I could index into it using the value 43 from the Age variable. LastName and Age are both variables in noRowNames; neither is a set of row names.
fprintf("This call threw error:\n%s", ME.message)
end
This call threw error:
Unrecognized table row name 'Johnson'.
I could use 'Johnson' with the LastName variable in noRowNames to index into it. It's a little more verbose, but it allows you to keep LastName as data in the table rather than metadata. The results look close to the results from the operation of indexing into lastNameRowNames with row name 'Johnson'.
noRowNames(matches(noRowNames.LastName, 'Johnson'), :)
ans =
LastName Age
___________ ___
{'Johnson'} 43
Second section of code, part 2
In your code you refer to VarNames. But you haven't showed us the contents of that variable. Sure, your table does have a variable named VarNames, but your usage of it in that indexing expression doesn't refer to that variable. You'd need to refer to it as settingsSet.podList.VarNames to refer to that variable or settingsSet.podList.VarNames{1} to refer to the first cell in that variable from the table.
Third section of code
Okay, so if you obtain a sub-table from your array you then try to access one of its Properties. settingsSet.podList(currentPod,VarNames).Properties.VariableNames. But this isn't going to somehow refer to the VarNames variable in the table, if that's what you're expecting. Based on that picture and your statement that the table settingsSet.podList is a 19-by-4 table array, the list of VariableNames of the table is {'podName', 'VarNames', 'VarTypes', 'timezone'}. But that's not what you're trying to do, it sounds like.
Suggestion
If you want to process each row in this table, looking to see if the contents of the VarNames variable in that row contains the text 'pressure', consider using rowfun. Something along these lines ought to work, though because I don't have your actual data I can't test it. [Since it's not going to run I left it commented out.] The InputVariables parameter will tell MATLAB to pass only the VarNames variable from the row into the anonymous function, and the GroupingVariables parameter will tell MATLAB to group the results by the unique values in the podName variable.
