Re: Zero or not?

[Przemek Klosowski]

   I'm new to "octave".  I'm translating from a method I use in "pascal"

   Avg = sum(abs(X))/(size(X)(2));     # Figure a dividing line

Or you could just say Avg=mean(X);

   Gate = Avg < abs(X);                      # Classify X

   Total = sum(X .* Gate) + sum(X .* !Gate);

Or, simpler,  avg=mean(x); sum(x(x>=avg)) + sum(x(x<avg))

I must say that this method is surprisingly good: twice as fast
as the full sort, while getting most of the accuracy:

x=exp(100*rand(1,1000000));

tic; avg=mean(x); sum(x(x>=avg)) + sum(x(x<avg))-sum(x), toc
  ans =  7.3219e+34
                     Elapsed time is 0.308838 seconds.
tic; sum(sort(x))-sum(x), toc
  ans =  7.0664e+34
                     Elapsed time is 0.689682 seconds.