Help on for loop

I have an R vector and a U vector. The R vector contains mostly zeros but has a couple of values. The U vector is a shorter length than the R vector and contains no zeros. I want to make a U_final vector which has the values of the U vector at the same locations where the R vector values are non-zero. My attempted code is below. It iterates through fine, but the end result is the last value in U in all locations where R is non-zero rather than all values of U in the appropriate non-zero locations of R. I'm using U = [0.0137;0.0081] and R = [0;0;0;72;0;90]. I'd like the output to be U_final = [0;0;0;0.0137;0;0.0081]

    for i = 1:length(R)
    for j = 1:length(U)
        if R(i,1) ~= 0
            U_final(i,1) = U(j,1)
        else U_final(i,1) == 0
        end
    end
end

[Walter Roberson]

Note that U_final(i,1) == 0 is a comparison statement, not an assignment.

Answer 1

[Teja Muppirala]

No need to iterate. MATLAB makes this simple with logical indexing.

U = [0.0137;0.0081];
R = [0;0;0;72;0;90];

U_final = R;
U_final(R~=0) = U

But the number of nonzeros in R needs to be equal to the length of U.

[Mark]

Thanks Teja. I now see it as a quick replacement of the nonzero elements. No need to overcomplicate things is apparently the lesson for the day. ;) cheers!

Answer 2

[Youssef Khmou]

hi try this , BUT the number of non zeros in R must be the same as the length of U:

R=zeros(100,1);
R(2:4:55)=rand; % R contains some values ( 14 elements !)
U=rand(14,1); % U is Shorter than R and contains non zeros vals
index=find(R~=0); %locations where R has non zeros .
U_final=zeros(size(R)); % this is optional 
U_final(index)=U;