matlab - How to extract vectors of consecutive numbers? -

suppose have q vector defined q = [1 2 3 4 5 8 9 10 15]; , find way extract different vectors of consecutive numbers , vector rest of elements. result like:

q1 = [1 2 3 4 5]; q2 = [8 9 10 ]; q3 = [15]; 

you can using diff, cumsum , accumarray:

q = accumarray(cumsum([1, diff(q)~=1])', q', [], @(x){x}) 

which returns:

{[1,2,3,4,5];  [8,9,10];  [15]} 

i.e. q{1} gives [1,2,3,4,5] etc far cleaner solution having separately named vectors. if really wanted have them, , know how many groups out, can follows:

[q1,q2,q3] = q{:}; 

explanation:

accumarray apply aggregation function (4th input) elements of vector (2nd input) based on groupings specified in vector (1st input).

to use notation in docs:

sub = cumsum([1, diff(q)~=1])'; val = q'; fun = @(x){x}; 

note sub needs start 1. idea use diff find elements consecutive (i.e. q(i+1) - q(i) == 1) vectorized using diff function. specifying diff(q)~=1 can find breaks between groups of consecutive numbers (concatenating 1 @ beginning force break @ start). cumsum converts these breaks vector of in right form sub i.e.

sub = [1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 3] 

the aggregation function specify cell concatenation.