Thread Subject: How to randomly selet a name from a list a of 47 names?

I need to write a code for making a random selection from a list of 47 non number data.

I have made a data file listing all the data and am aware of the function textscan. But I am not getting it to work.

Also, how do I call for a random data that is in the list?

Thanks


Message was edited by: Van

On Nov 12, 5:29 pm, Van <sw_kni...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I need to write a code for making a random selection from a list of 47 non number data.
>
> I have made a data file listing all the data and am aware of the function textscan. But I am not getting it to work.
>
> Also, how do I call for a random data that is in the list?
>
> Thanks
>
> Message was edited by: Van

Place the list in a cell array with 47 elements. Generate an integer
random number in the range [1, 47]. Use the random number as the index
to the cell array to retrieve the corresponding name.

HTH

Jomar

Van <sw_knight@hotmail.com> wrote in message <482182665.7784.1258064993439.JavaMail.root@gallium.mathforum.org>...
> I need to write a code for making a random selection from a list of 47 non number data.
>
> I have made a data file listing all the data and am aware of the function textscan. But I am not getting it to work.
>
> Also, how do I call for a random data that is in the list?
>
> Thanks
>
>
> Message was edited by: Van
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%Put the names into a cell array.

a ={'Name1';'Name2';'Name3';'Name4';'Name5'};

%Then use the uniform random distruibution (rand) as the index

randomname = a(round(rand*length(a)));

I was too slow!

No problem!!... thanks for the replies :D Got it working ^^