Logical values take up fewer bytes than most numeric values, which is a plus if you're dealing with very large arrays. You can also use logical arrays to do logical indexing. For example:
>> valArray = 1:5; %# Array of values
>> numIndex = [0 1 1 0 1]; %# Numeric array of ones and zeroes
>> binIndex = logical([0 1 1 0 1]); %# Logical array of ones and zeroes
>> whos
Name Size Bytes Class Attributes
binIndex 1x5 5 logical %# 1/8 the number of bytes
numIndex 1x5 40 double %# as a double array
valArray 1x5 40 double
>> b = valArray(binIndex) %# Logical indexing
b =
2 3 5
>> b = valArray(find(numIndex)) %# You have to use the FIND function to
%# find the indices of the non-zero
b = %# values in numIndex
2 3 5
One note: If you will be dealing with arrays of zeroes and ones that are very sparse (i.e. very few ones), it may be best to use an array of numeric indices such as you would get from the FIND function.Take the following example:
>> binIndex = false(1,10000); %# A 1-by-10000 logical array
>> binIndex([2 100 1003]) = true; %# Set 3 values to true
>> numIndex = find(binIndex) %# Find the indices of the non-zero values
numIndex =
2 100 1003
>> whos
Name Size Bytes Class Attributes
binIndex 1x10000 10000 logical %# 10000 bytes versus
numIndex 1x3 24 double %# many fewer bytes
%# for a shorter array