Converting a complex number into a single value

I have got a matrix of complex values and I want to sort the highest 10 values from it. For this I got the modulus of the complex values and the sorted them. But the values I get after applying modulus change from time to time. How to solve this to get a consistent value? I'm using Matlab IDE.

Code segment used.

 realPeriodicityMap = abs(periodicitymap);
 disp(realPeriodicityMap);

 periodicitymapRow = reshape(realPeriodicityMap, 1, []);

Changes in values are shown below. Instance 1 values:

    0.0040    0.0047    0.0014    0.0067    0.0040    0.0023    0.0030       
    0.0054    0.0040    0.0016    0.0040    0.0078    0.0087    0.0057            
    0.0054    0.0044    0.0068    0.0040    0.0048    0.0023    0.0012    
    0.0061    0.0040    0.0032    0.0002    0.0055    0.0055    0.0045            
Instance 2 values:

0.0046    0.0045    0.0016    0.0067    0.0037    0.0021    0.0027    
0.0057    0.0043    0.0018    0.0044    0.0077    0.0085    0.0051    
0.0091    0.0054    0.0051    0.0070    0.0042    0.0051    0.0018    
0.0062    0.0038    0.0034    0.0004    0.0056    0.0053    0.0043

[Rik]

What do you mean with "the values I get after applying modulus change from time to time"?

And wouldn't you need something like this?

sorted=sort(abs(realPeriodicityMap),'descend');
sorted(find(sorted, 10))%get top 10 values

[Rik]

Should that be the result from the same input? Also, did you try my code? It should give you the top 10 values.

[NC]

Yes, same input gives different outputs. I tried your code and it sorts 10 values successfully. But the changes in values is still there.

[Rik]

So running the exact same code produces 2 different results, without any other code being run in between? That would mean the code below would result in false:

sorted=sort(abs(realPeriodicityMap),'descend');
A=sorted(find(sorted, 10));%get top 10 values
sorted=sort(abs(realPeriodicityMap),'descend');
B=sorted(find(sorted, 10));
isequal(A,B)

Can you confirm this?

Are you also sure you didn't make a typo interchanging periodicitymap and realPeriodicityMap? And do you have any m-lint warnings in that piece of code?