Using arrayfun to apply two arguments of a function on every combination - octave

Question

Let i = [1 2] and j = [3 5]. Now in octave:
arrayfun(#(x,y) x+y,i,j)
we get [4 7]. But I want to apply the function on the combinations of i vs. j to get [i(1)+j(1) i(1)+j(2) i(2)+j(1) i(2)+j(2)]=[4 6 5 7].
How do I accomplish this? I know I can go with for-loopsl but I want vectorized-code because it's faster.

Answer 1

In Octave, for finding summations between two vectors, you can use a truly vectorized approach with broadcasting like so -
out = reshape(ii(:).' + jj(:),[],1)
Here's a runtime test on ideone for the input vectors of size 1 x 100 each -
-------------------- With FOR-LOOP
Elapsed time is 0.148444 seconds.
-------------------- With BROADCASTING
Elapsed time is 0.00038299 seconds.
If you want to keep it generic to accommodate operations other than just summations, you can use anonymous functions like so -
func1 = #(I,J) I+J;
out = reshape(func1(ii,jj.'),1,[])
In MATLAB, you could accomplish the same with two bsxfun alternatives as listed next.
I. bsxfun with Anonymous Function -
func1 = #(I,J) I+J;
out = reshape(bsxfun(func1,ii(:).',jj(:)),1,[]);
II. bsxfun with Built-in #plus -
out = reshape(bsxfun(#plus,ii(:).',jj(:)),1,[]);
With the input vectors of size 1 x 10000 each, the runtimes at my end were -
-------------------- With FOR-LOOP
Elapsed time is 1.193941 seconds.
-------------------- With BSXFUN ANONYMOUS
Elapsed time is 0.252825 seconds.
-------------------- With BSXFUN BUILTIN
Elapsed time is 0.215066 seconds.

Answer 2

First, your first example is not the best because the most efficient way to accomplish what you're doing with arrayfun would be to vectorize:
a = [1 2];
b = [3 5];
out = a+b
Second, in Matlab at least, arrayfun is not necessarily faster than a simple for loop. arrayfun is mainly a convenience (especially for it's more advanced options). Try this simple timing example yourself:
a = 1:1e5;
b = a+1;
y = arrayfun(#(x,y)x+y,a,b); % Warm up
tic
y = arrayfun(#(x,y)x+y,a,b);
toc
y = zeros(1,numel(a));
for k = 1:numel(a)
y(k) = a(k)+b(k); % Warm up
end
tic
y = zeros(1,numel(a));
for k = 1:numel(a)
y(k) = a(k)+b(k);
end
toc
In Matlab R2015a, the for loop method is over 70 times faster run from the Command window and over 260 times faster when run from an M-file function. Octave may be different, but you should experiment.
Finally, you can accomplish what you want using meshgrid:
a = [1 2];
b = [3 5];
[x,y] = meshgrid(a,b);
out = x(:).'+y(:).'
which returns [4 6 5 7] as in your question. You can also use ndgrid to get output in a different order.