How to calculate distance between array elements?

Hi, Let say I have this array:

A = [1 3 5 1 4 1 2 6 1]

the distances between elements are:

1-3-5-1:

1 to 3 = 2

3 to 5 = 1

5 to 1 = 3

1-4-1:

1 to 4 = 2

4 to 1 = 1

1-2-6-1:

1 to 2 = 3

2 to 6 = 1

6 to 1 = 2

what I need is to accumulate the distance of elements between every two ones, and if the distance between every two ones is greater than 5 then a penalty of 3 should be added to the total distance of the whole array. For example the distance between 1-3-5-1 = 6, so in this case, a penalty of 3 should be added to the total distance and so on.

[Guillaume]

1-3 = 2

Ok... I'd say it's -2 but let's not worry about the sign

3-5 = 1

5-1 = 3

Huh? What sort of math is that?

[Hajem Daham]

Sorry, I didn't explain well, 1-3 means the distance from 1 to 3 and same for others.

[Hajem Daham]

Guillaume, go head you can answer now.

[Guillaume]

I'm not any clearer. How is the distance from 3 to 5 not equal to 2? And from 5 to 1 not equal to 4?

[Hajem Daham]

don't focus on numbers its just example if you know how to do the coding please answer, otherwise leave it.

Answer 1

[Matt J]

I too find the post hard to interpret, but maybe this is what you want:

    A =  [1 3 5 1 4 1 2 6 1];
    dist=cumsum([0 2 1 3 2 1 3 1 2]); %distances from start

    onelocs=find(A==1);

    D=dist(onelocs(2:end)) - dist(onelocs(1:end-1)); %distance between ones

    totalDistance=dist(end) + 3*sum(D>5)

[Hajem Daham]

Thank you Matt, this is what I want.