Like this?
sza = 10;
A = randi([1 10],sza)
% output will be variable-length
% preallocate to maximum length
kmax = max(size(A,1),size(A,2));
outvec = zeros(1,kmax);
k = 0;
while ~isempty(A)
outvec(k+1) = A(1,1);
k = k+1;
A(A(1,:)==1,:) = [];
if isempty(A); break; end
A(:,A(1,:)==1) = [];
% it's not clear if these cases should still be used
% if the first row/column has already been deleted in the prior lines
if isempty(A); break; end
A(:,1) = [];
if isempty(A); break; end
A(1,:) = [];
end
% crop off excess vector length
outvec = outvec(1:k)
That might simplify, but it still seems too ambiguous to bother optimizing.
