MATLAB: Linear indices from row and column indices for a rectangular region of interest.

linear indicessubscript

I have the row and column indices of a rectangular region of interest in a rectangular image. How can i get the linear indices from these row and column indices?
%this works
a = rand(5,5); %changed.
row_indices = 1:5;
col_indices = 1:5;
[X,Y] = meshgrid(row_indices,col_indices);
indices = sub2ind(size(a), Y, X)
%i want the indices when rows and cols are not necessarily of same length.
a = rand(5,3); %changed
row_indices = 1:5;
col_indices = 1:3;
[X,Y] = meshgrid(row_indices,col_indices);
indices = sub2ind(size(a), Y, X) %this would give out of range subscript.

Best Answer

You need to reverse the order of the second and third arguments to sub2ind: 
indices = sub2ind(size(a), X(:), Y(:)) %this would give out of range subscript.
and ideally make them column vectors, using the (:) subscript notation.
Note that ndgrid may be preferable to meshgrid.
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