MATLAB: How to sort a vector according to another vector

arrangeindexingloopssort

I am trying to write a code that will do thr following:
Input:
R=[a b c d]'; ranks=[1 2 3 1];
a has rank 1; b has rank 2;
c has rank 3; and d has rank 1;
I want to re-arrange R st that those elements whose ranks 1 are listed first followed by those who ranks 2 and so on.
So the output be:
R=[a d b c]'
This is a special case in other cases the vectors R and ranks will be very huge so I am trying to find a code that is efficient
Thank you

Best Answer

R=['a':'d'].';  % So can identify elements of R
% the engine
[~,ix]=sort(ranks);
% the result...
>> R(ix)
ans =
  4×1 char array
    'a'
    'd'
    'b'
    'c'
 >>
The elements of R will have to be single values to be stored in an array or R would need be a cell array to hold other objects.
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