MATLAB: Isolate Elements in a Vector

Question

Suppose I have two sets of data:

ab =

    0.3570
    0.3560
    0.3750
    0.5150
    0.3570
    0.3560
    0.3750
    0.5150

and

ab =

    0.4100
    0.2500
    0.3340
    0.5500
    0.6250
    0.7760
    0.3330
    0.4100
    0.2500
    0.3340
    0.5500
    0.6250
    0.7760
    0.3330
    0.4100
    0.2500
    0.3340
    0.5500
    0.6250
    0.7760
    0.3330
    0.4100
    0.2500
    0.3340
    0.5500
    0.6250
    0.7760
    0.3330
         0

As you see with the set ab, the numbers repeat itself:

    0.3570
    0.3560
    0.3750
    0.5150

and with second set ab:

 0.4100
    0.2500
    0.3340
    0.5500
    0.6250
    0.7760
    0.3330

But also note that there is a zero at the end of the second set.

Now if I wanted to construct a vector using one set of data, I would use the following command for the second set to remove that zero

reshape(ab(1:end-1), [], 4);

This would read the vector from the first element to the last, being 0 and remove it with end-1. This also assumes that there are 4 runs.

Obviously this wouldn't work for the first set.

What would I need to change for this to read both sets and to prompt the user how many runs of data there are?

Answer 1

If you have just these two cases

if ab(end)==0
 ab(end)=[]
end
out=reshape(ab,4,[])