find multiple closest values in a vector at once without "going over" (Matlab) -

let's have following 2 vectors:

a = [1 3 5 7 8 9 10 15 16]; b = [2 4 14]; 

is there function can use that, every element in b, can find index of closest value element in a without "going over" value i'm searching for? expected output be:

[1 2 7] 

i have found previous answers address finding closest value, not closest value without exceeding values being searched for.

edited: one-liner:

[~,index] = max(repmat(a,numel(b),1) + 0./bsxfun(@le,a,b'), [], 2) '#% 0./(0 or 1) creates nan mask condition #% isn't met, leaving desired values in matrix      #% max ignores nans, conveniently                   

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this isn't built-in function pretty simple (link on ideone):

a = [1 3 5 7 8 9 10 15 16]; b = [2 4 14];  c = bsxfun(@minus,b',a) #%' transpose b  c(c<0)=nan; #% discard values in greater b [~,ci] = min(c,[],2) #% min ignores nan d = a(ci) #% if want actual values of 

output:

c =      1   -1   -3   -5   -6   -7   -8  -13  -14     3    1   -1   -3   -4   -5   -6  -11  -12    13   11    9    7    6    5    4   -1   -2  ci =     1    2    7  d =      1    3   10