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Random Sampling of Repeated Numbers in an Array

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Dear MATLAB Experts,
Hello. I would like to solve this problem. I have a following column vector Q that contains numbers which some are repeating and some do not. I would like to obtain a new column QQ which consists of only the unique values contained in my original Q array. I understand that I could simply use unique(Q).
However, I would like to take one step further.
I actually would like to select randomly from a collection of repeated number. That is, suppose in the following example, I have three 7's in the first, second and third row. I would like to randomly select one 7 from these three rows. Likewise, I have three 8's which I would like to randomly select from row 4,5 and 6.
I have displayed my code. However, I am obtaining a dimensional inconsistency due to random selection of rows. I would greatly appreciate if you could provide me with an advice which I could code this problem efficiently without using excessive number of loops.
Q = [7 7 7 8 8 8 10 18 27 42 65 49 54 65 78 78 78 82 87 98 98]';
B = unique(Q);
Ncount = histc(Q, B);
i = 1;
while i < length(Q)
QQ(i) = Q(i);
if Ncount(i) > 1
[row col] = find(Q == B(i));
row_select = randsample(row,1);
QQ(i) = QQ(row_select);
end
i = i + 1;
end
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Masato
  2 Comments
Jan
Jan on 21 Apr 2018
All 7s are equal. What is the meaning of selecting a specific one?
dpb
dpb on 21 Apr 2018
Edited: dpb on 21 Apr 2018

Agree with Jan if you only save the value there's no difference; appears that what your problem is that it matters which one is selected as there's something unique about position, not just magnitude. If that isn't so, then there is no difference and may as well just use the results of unique as one seven itself is as good as another; only if which seven makes a difference.

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Accepted Answer

John BG
John BG on 21 Apr 2018
Edited: John BG on 21 Apr 2018

Hi Masato

this is John BG jgb2012@sky.com

I have done the following corrections to your code

1.- the mismatch error was cause by the i=i+1 in the while loop attempting to index +1 beyond the length of the vector.

a for loops suffices.

2.- there's no need for the variable row_select

3.- there's no need for the find producing row_select

4.- return 0, not 1, in QQ, for all those single values of Q that do not imply random selection.

Setting those to 1 may be misleading, because 1 is a possible index for a sub-selection within the partial ranges.

Q = [7 7 7 8 8 8 10 18 27 42 65 49 54 65 78 78 78 82 87 98 98];
B = unique(Q)
Ncount = histc(Q, B)
i = 1;
for i=1:1:length(B) % < length(Q)
  QQ(i) = 0 % Q(i);
  % or  QQ(i) = 1, but 1 may be index of random selection, thus potentially confusing
  if Ncount(i) > 1
%     [row col] = find(Q == B(i));
   % no need for variable row_select
    QQ(i) =  randsample(Ncount(i),1);     
  end
%   i = i + 1;
end

この回答が役に立つと判断した場合は、回答として回答をマークするようにしてください。

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時間と注意を事前に感謝

If you find this answer useful would you please be so kind to consider marking my answer as Accepted Answer?

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thanks in advance for time and attention

John BG

jgb2012@sky.com

additional comments:

1.- as usual, and as a compliment, Jan Simon is on the top of his game always providing extremely useful insight and solutions to all questions he contributes to,

but it my opinion for this particular answer there's no need for any additional functions like runlength.m

https://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/241-runlength-m?s_tid=srchtitle

or RunLength.m

https://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/41813-runlength?s_tid=srchtitle

many people do not even have a complier installed, which fills up the screen with all the checks and the suggestion to install one, or to download something from a website. Again, I find RunLength a powerful function, but in the context of generating random selection of sub-sections, there's no need for such advanced function.

.

  2 Comments
John BG
John BG on 22 Apr 2018

ありがとう、いつでも、喜んで :)

Thanks, any time, happy to help :)

John BG

jgb2012@Sky.com

Jan
Jan on 22 Apr 2018
  • Does this output match the question?
QQ = [2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 3, 0, 0, 2]
  • There is no need for i = 1 before the loop for i=1:1:length(B).
  • A proper pre-allocation of QQ would accelerate the code.
  • The FileExchange submission RunLength contains the M-file RunLength_M, so you do not need a C-compiler.

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More Answers (3)

Jan
Jan on 21 Apr 2018
Edited: Jan on 21 Apr 2018
B = unique(Q);
while i < length(Q)
  [row col] = find(Q == B(i));
  i = i + 1;
end

This cannot work, because B is shorter than Q, when Q is not unique. i must be <= length(B).

I do not understand the purpose of the code. All elements with the same value are identical, so it does not matter which e.g. 7 you select.

[EDITED] Another solution using FEX: RunLength:

Q = [7 7 7 8 8 8 10 18 27 42 65 49 54 65 78 78 78 82 87 98 98 7 7]';
[B, N, Index] = RunLength(Q);
Select        = floor(Index + rand(size(N)) .* N)
Value         = Q(Select)

This considers the 2 different blocks of 7s separately. But if Q is sorted, this might be efficient also.

  4 Comments
Jan
Jan on 21 Apr 2018
Edited: Jan on 21 Apr 2018

@Stephen: I've updated the speed test to include the C-Mex and Matlab version of RunLength. The default flags in RunLength_M are set to "vectorized" mode.

Stephen23
Stephen23 on 21 Apr 2018
Edited: Stephen23 on 21 Apr 2018

+1 very thorough!

Note that Jan's submission RunLength also includes the mfile RunLength_M (which does not require compilation). So you can choose between a very efficient mex file or an almost-as-efficient Mfile!

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Bruno Luong
Bruno Luong on 22 Apr 2018
Edited: Bruno Luong on 22 Apr 2018
p=randperm(length(Q));
[~,I]=unique(Q(p));
RandomSelect=p(I), % Q(RandomSelect) is equal to unique(Q)
  1 Comment
Masato Koizumi
Masato Koizumi on 22 Apr 2018
Thank you so much Bruno. I greatly appreciate your time and effort on your advice!
~Masato

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dpb
dpb on 21 Apr 2018

On the assumption made in above comment...

>> [B,ia]=unique(Q);
>> isMult3=(NCount==3);
>> arrayfun(@(x) randperm(x,1),Ncount(isMult3))  % random index into matching groups
ans =
   1
   3
   2
>> 

Now, fix up to get the index to the original location --

 >> ix3=arrayfun(@(x) randperm(x,1),Ncount(isMult))+ia(find(Ncount==3))-1
ix3 =
     1
     5
    15
>> Q(ix3)
Q =
     7
     8
    78
>> 
  2 Comments
Jan
Jan on 21 Apr 2018
I do not see the detail in the question, that only the blocks with 3 repetitions should be considered.
dpb
dpb on 21 Apr 2018
Agreed. Just shows one way to deal with a group; left generalization to OP as "exercise for student" :).

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