Transform a matrix to a stacked vector where all zeroes after the last non-zero value per row are removed - matlab

Question

I have a matrix with some zero values I want to erase.
a=[ 1 2 3 0 0; 1 0 1 3 2; 0 1 2 5 0]
>>a =
1 2 3 0 0
1 0 1 3 2
0 1 2 5 0
However, I want to erase only the ones after the last non-zero value of each line.
This means that I want to retain 1 2 3 from the first line, 1 0 1 3 2 from the second and 0 1 2 5 from the third.
I want to then store the remaining values in a vector. In the case of the example this would result in the vector
b=[1 2 3 1 0 1 3 2 0 1 2 5]
The only way I figured out involves a for loop that I would like to avoid:
b=[];
for ii=1:size(a,1)
l=max(find(a(ii,:)));
b=[b a(ii,1:l)];
end
Is there a way to vectorize this code?

Answer 1

There are many possible ways to do this, here is my approach:
arotate = a' %//rotate the matrix a by 90 degrees
b=flipud(arotate) %//flips the matrix up and down
c= flipud(cumsum(b,1)) %//cumulative sum the matrix rows -and then flip it back.
arotate(c==0)=[]
arotate =
1 2 3 1 0 1 3 2 0 1 2 5
=========================EDIT=====================
just realized cumsum can have direction parameter so this should do:
arotate = a'
b = cumsum(arotate,1,'reverse')
arotate(b==0)=[]
This direction parameter was not available on my 2010b version, but should be there for you if you are using 2013a or above.

Answer 2

Here's an approach using bsxfun's masking capability -
M = size(a,2); %// Save size parameter
at = a.'; %// Transpose input array, to be used for masked extraction
%// Index IDs of last non-zero for each row when looking from right side
[~,idx] = max(fliplr(a~=0),[],2);
%// Create a mask of elements that are to be picked up in a
%// transposed version of the input array using BSXFUN's broadcasting
out = at(bsxfun(#le,(1:M)',M+1-idx'))
Sample run (to showcase mask usage) -
>> a
a =
1 2 3 0 0
1 0 1 3 2
0 1 2 5 0
>> M = size(a,2);
>> at = a.';
>> [~,idx] = max(fliplr(a~=0),[],2);
>> bsxfun(#le,(1:M)',M+1-idx') %// mask to be used on transposed version
ans =
1 1 1
1 1 1
1 1 1
0 1 1
0 1 0
>> at(bsxfun(#le,(1:M)',M+1-idx')).'
ans =
1 2 3 1 0 1 3 2 0 1 2 5