How to make an if-statement that finds whether a 1x5 column has 4 of the rows the value 0?

Hello,

I am currently wondering how I could make an if statement that finds out whether a 1x5 matrix has more than 4 of the indexes (right term?) more than 0.

E.g.

I have a randomized function where the 1x5 matrix can have random numbers, but sometimes it can happen that the matrix randomly generates:

matrix =

0
0
0
241
0

I want my code to do something in particular when there is more than 4 zeros with an if-statement, but have no idea how to formulate the if-statement.

Any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

[Mathieu NOE]

hello

my suggestion below :

matrix =  [0 0 0 241 0];

ind1 = find(abs(matrix) == 0); % method 1 can be unpredictabe if value in data is almost but not truly zero

tol = eps; % a very small number 
ind2 = find(abs(matrix)<tol); % method 2 ; much more robust against "almost" zero issue

if numel(ind2) > 4 % or whatever
    % your code here
end

Answer 2

[dpb]

Just a somewhat pedantic comment on details of notation first -- If the matrix is 1x5, it would be

matrix = [0 0 0 241 0]

instead, a row vector, not column as given above. For addressing a vector it won't matter much, but is quite important to have orientation correct if were 2D instead and also for things like matrix multiplication, etc.

Anyways, tutorial aside, if the size is always 5 elements, then >4 elements being zero is equivalent to

if ~all(M)
 ...do something here
end

because >4 ==> 5 which is the full size of the vector.

Or if the size is variable or the criterion is for some number other than all, then use

 sum(M==0)>=(numel(M)-n)

where n is the number of nonzero elements required (1 in the above case).

Answer 3

[Image Analyst]

Well you've asked about two sort of opposite situations:

1. "more than 4 zeros", and
2. "more than 4 of the indexes more than 0"

So I give solutions for both situations below:

matrix = [0 0 0 241 0]
% Situation 1: "when there is more than 4 zeros"
% Method 1 to find where there are 4 or more zeros.
if nnz(~matrix) >= 4
    % It has 4 or more zeros.
end
% Method 2 to find where there are 4 or more zeros.
if sum(matrix) >= 4
    % It has 4 or more zeros.
end
% Situation 2 : "finds out whether a 1x5 matrix has more than 4 of the indexes more than 0."
if sum(matrix > 0) > 4
    % It has more than 4 positive values ("more than 0").
end