How to compare a matrix element with its neighbours without using a loop in MATLAB?

Question

I have a matrix in MATLAB. I want to check the 4-connected neighbours (left, right, top, bottom) for every element. If the current element is less than any of the neighbours the

Answer 1

One way to do this is with the function NLFILTER from the Image Processing Toolbox, which applies a given function to each M-by-N block of a matrix:

>> A = magic(6)  %# A sample matrix

A =

    35     1     6    26    19    24
     3    32     7    21    23    25
    31     9     2    22    27    20
     8    28    33    17    10    15
    30     5    34    12    14    16
     4    36    29    13    18    11

>> B = nlfilter(A,[3 3],@(b) b(5)*all(b(5) >= b([2 4 6 8])))

B =

    35     0     0    26     0     0
     0    32     0     0     0    25
    31     0     0     0    27     0
     0     0     0     0     0     0
    30     0    34     0     0    16
     0    36     0     0    18     0

The above code defines an anonymous function which uses linear indexing to get the center element of a 3-by-3 submatrix b(5) and compare it to its 4-connected neighbors b([2 4 6 8]). The value in the center element is multiplied by the logical result returned by the function ALL, which is 1 when the center element is larger than all of its nearest neighbors and 0 otherwise.