How can I randomize target positions in a Gaussian distribution?

I would like to determine several target positions in the Z direction (height). 10 values are to be determined, Gaussian distributed around the value 80, with a standard deviation of 40 and a repetition of the drawing for a value of <0 and >160. I thank you for any help and suggestions!

Answer 1

[dpb]

Z=randn(10,1)*40+80;
isOK=all(iswithin(Z,0,160));
while ~isOK
  % regenerate code here depending on what your definition of "regeneration" is
  Z=randn(10,1)*40+80;
  isOK=all(iswithin(Z,0,160));
end  

The above regenerates a whole new sample; with these parameters the frequency of failing the test is only 5%.

If the number of trials gets to be extremely large this might be an observable slowdown, but for simplicity it's hard to beat other than just truncating the values outside the range.

Oh... iswithin is my "syntactic sugar" routine

function flg=iswithin(x,lo,hi)
% returns T for values within range of input
% SYNTAX:
%  [log] = iswithin(x,lo,hi)
%      returns T for x between lo and hi values, inclusive

  flg= (x>=lo) & (x<=hi);
>> 

[Mint]

Thanks, that worked! :)