I have a variable that contains some numbers which change throughout the program. e.g.:

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Editorial Team

Asked: June 16, 20262026-06-16T05:32:37+00:00 2026-06-16T05:32:37+00:00

I have a variable that contains some numbers which change throughout the program.

e.g.:

a<-c(1,2,4,6,5)

I would like to take a fixed number of samples (3) every time:

sample(a,3,replace=FALSE)

In some cases it could be that a < 3 in such cases I get the following error:

Error in sample(a, 3, replace = FALSE, prob = c(weights)) :
cannot take a sample larger than the population when ‘replace = FALSE’

Is there a way to sample such that if a<3 than it takes as much as it can?
For example, if a=2 and sample size should be 3 then it only takes 2

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Editorial Team · Answer 1 · 2026-06-16T05:32:39+00:00

Editorial Team

sample(a, min(length(a), 3), replace=FALSE)

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