Shuffling numbers while keeping identical numbers next to each other

Hi everyone,

Let us assume the following array:

A = [1 1 2 3 3 4 6 6 6 6]

I would like to shuffle this array while while keeping identical numbers next to each other (e.g., array B):

B = [1 1 3 3 6 6 6 6 4 2]

This means that array C is not desirable for me:

C = [1 3 1 3 6 4 6 2 6 6]

Do you have any suggestion?

Regards,

Amir

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

>> A = [1,1,2,3,3,4,6,6,6,6];
>> X = diff(find([1,diff(A),1]));
>> C = mat2cell(A,1,X);
>> Y = randperm(numel(C));
>> V = [C{Y}]
V = 2   1   1   6   6   6   6   3   3   4

[Amirhossein Moosavi]

Thanks! It works. One more question. What if I have another array (identical size) and want to shuffle it with the exact same order? For example:

A = [1 1 2 3 3 4 6 6 6 6]
B = [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10]

Now, assume that I have shffuled A as follows:

A = [6 6 6 6 1 1 2 3 3 4]

Accordingly, array B must be sorted as follows:

B = [7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6]

Thanks in advance!

[Stephen23]

To sort the 2nd vector into the same order you could split and recombine just like we did for the 1st, e.g.:

D = mat2cell(B,1,X);
Bout = [D{Y}]

But if you need to do this for quite a few vectors, simply generate the indices:

D = mat2cell(1:numel(A),1,X);
Z = [D{Y}];

and then use those indices as often as required:

Bout = B(Z);