Puzzler: Count unique nonzero periods in a timeseries without a for loop

given: a signal as a time series

return: discrete number of times is is holds a nonzero position

For example:
given: [0,1,0.5,0.7,0,1]
return: 2

given: [0,1,0,0,0,.3,1,0,0,1]
return: 3

given: [0,1]
return: 1

is there a way to do this task in a vector manner as opposed to a for loop that counts nonzero periods as it encounters them and flicks a counter.

Answer 1

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

a=[0,1,0,0,0,.3,1,0,0,1]
out=numel(strfind([0 logical(a)],[0 1]))

[Will Kinsman]

Thanks for the fast answer!! Nice simple solution.

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

Yes

[~, numRegions] = bwlabel(yourVector ~= 0);

[Will Kinsman]

sorry dont have imaging processing toolbox. but damn. nice solution.