MATLAB vector: prevent consecutive values from same range - matlab

Question

Okay, this might seem like a weird question, but bear with me.
So I have a random vector in a .m file, with certain constraints built into it. Here is my code:
randvecall = randsample(done, done, true);
randvec = randvecall([1;diff(randvecall(:))]~=0);
"Done" is just the range of values we take the sample from, so don't worry about that. As you can see, this randsamples from a range of values, and then prunes this random vector with the diff function, so that consecutive duplicate values are removed. There is still the potential for duplicate values in the vector, but they simply cannot be consecutive.
This is all well and good, and works perfectly fine.
So, say, randvec looks like this:
randvec =
54
47
52
26
39
2
14
51
24
6
19
56
34
46
12
7
41
18
29
7
It is actually a lot longer, with something like 60-70 values, but you get the point.
What I want to do is add a little extra constraint on to this vector. When I sample from this vector, the values are classified according to their range. So values from 1-15 are category 1, 16-30 are category 2, and so on. The reasons for this are unimportant, but it is a pretty important part of the program. So if you look at the values I provided above, you see a section like this:
7
41
18
29
7
This is actually bad for my program. Because the value ranges are treated separately, 41, 18, and 29 are used differently than 7 is. So, for all intents and purposes, 7 is appearing consecutively in my script. What I want to do is somehow parse/modify/whatever the vector when it is generated so that the same number from a certain range cannot appear twice "in a row," regardless of how many other numbers from different ranges are between them. Does this make sense/did I describe this well? So, I want MATLAB to search the vector, and for all values within certain ranges (1-15,16-30,31-45,46-60) make sure that "consecutive" values from the same range are not identical.
So, then, that is what I want to do. This may not by any means be the best way to do this, so any advice/alternatives are, of course, appreciated. I know I can do this better with multiple vectors, but for various reasons I need this to be a single, long vector (the way my script is designed it just wouldn't work if I had a separate vector for each range of values).

Answer 1

What you may want to do is create four random vectors, one for each category, ensure that they do not contain any two consecutive equal values, and then build your final random vector by ordered picking of values from random categories, i.e.
%# make a 50-by-nCategories array of random numbers
categories = [1,16,31,46;15,30,45,60]; %# category min/max
nCategories = size(categories,2);
randomCategories = zeros(50,nCategories);
for c=1:nCategories
%# draw 100 numbers for good measure
tmp = randi(categories(:,c),[100 1]);
tmp(diff(tmp==0)) = []; %# remove consecutive duplicates
%# store
randomCategories(:,c) = tmp(1:50);
end
%# select from which bins to pick. Use half the numbers, so that we don't force the
%# numbers of entries per category to be exactly equal
bins = randi(nCategories,[100,1]);
%# combine the output, i.e. replace e.g. the numbers
%# '3' in 'bins' with the consecutive entries
%# from the third category
out = zeros(100,1);
for c = 1:nCategories
cIdx = find(bins==c);
out(cIdx) = randomCategories(1:length(cIdx),c);
end

Answer 2

First we assign each element the bin number of the range it lies into:
[~,bins] = histc(randvec, [1 16 31 46 61]);
Next we loop for each range, and find elements in those categories. For example for the first range of 1-16, we get:
>> ind = find(bins==1); %# bin#1 of 1-16
>> x = randvec(ind)
ans =
2
14
6
12
7
7
now you can apply the same process of removing consecutive duplicates:
>> idx = ([1;diff(x)] == 0)
idx =
0
0
0
0
0
1
>> problematicIndices = ind(idx) %# indices into the vector: randvec
Do this for all ranges, and collect those problematic indices. Next decide how you want to deal with them (remove them, generate other numbers in their place, etc...)

Answer 3

If I understand your problem correct, I think that is one solution. It uses unique, but applies it to each of the subranges of the vector. The values that are duplicated within a range of indices are identified so you can deal with them.
cat_inds = [1,16,31,46,60]; % need to include last element
for i=2:numel(cat_inds)
randvec_part = randvec( cat_inds(i-1):cat_inds(i) );
% Find the indices for the first unique elements in this part of the array
[~,uniqInds] = unique(randvec_part,'first');
% this binary vector identifies the indices that are duplicated in
% this part of randvec
%
% NB: they are indices into randvec_part
%
inds_of_duplicates = ~ismember(1:numel(randvec_part), uniqInds);
% code to deal with the problem indices goes here. Modify randvec_part accordingly...
% Write it back to the original vector (assumes that the length is the same)
randvec( cat_inds(i-1):cat_inds(i) ) = randvec_part;
end

Answer 4

Here's a different approach than what everyone else has been tossing up. The premise that I'm working on here is that you want to have a random arrangement of values in a vector without repitition. I'm not sure what other constraints you are applying prior to the point where we are giving out input.
My thoughts is to use the randperm function.
Here's some sample code how it would work:
%randvec is your vector of random values
randvec2 = unique(randvec); % This will return the sorted list of values from randvec.
randomizedvector = randvec2(randperm(length(randvec2));
% Note: if randvec is multidimensional you'll have to use numel instead of length
At this point randomizedvector should contain all the unique values from the initial randvec and but 'shuffled' or re-randomized after the unique function call. Now you could just seed the randvec differently to avoid needing the unique function call as simply calling randperm(n) will returning a randomized vector with values ranging from 1 to n.
Just an off the wall 2 cents there =P enjoy!