Sampling from a subset of data - r

Question

I have the following problem.
I have multiple subarrays (say 2) that I have populated with character labels (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). My algorithm selects labels at random based on occurrence probabilities.
How can I get R to instead select labels 1:3 for subarray 1 and 4:5 for subarray 2, say, without using subsetting (i.e., []). That is, I want a random subset of labels to be selected for each subarray, instead of all labels assigned to each subarray manually using [].
I know sample() should help.
Using subsetting (which I don't want) one would do
x <- 1:5
sample(x[1:3], size, prob = probs[1:3])
but this assigns labels 1:3 to ALL subarrays.
Would
sample(sample(x), size, replace = TRUE, prob = probs)
work?
Any ideas? Please let me know if this is unclear.
Here is a small example, which selects labels from 1:5 for each of 10 subarrays.
set.seed(1)
N <- 10
K <- 2
Hstar <- 5
probs <- rep(1/Hstar, Hstar)
perms <- 5
## Set up container(s) to hold the identity of each individual from each permutation ##
num.specs <- ceiling(N / K)
## Create an ID for each haplotype ##
haps <- 1:Hstar
## Assign individuals (N) to each subpopulation (K) ##
specs <- 1:num.specs
## Generate permutations, assume each permutation has N individuals, and sample those individuals' haplotypes from the probabilities ##
gen.perms <- function() {
sample(haps, size = num.specs, replace = TRUE, prob = probs) # I would like each subarray to contain a random subset of 1:5.
}
pop <- array(dim = c(perms, num.specs, K))
for (i in 1:K) {
pop[,, i] <- replicate(perms, gen.perms())
}
pop
Hopefully this helps.

Answer 1

I think what you actually want is something like that
num.specs <- 3
haps[sample(seq(haps),size = num.specs,replace = F)]
[1] 3 5 4
That is a random subset of your vector haps ?

Answer 2

Not quite what you want (returns list of matrices instead of 3D array) but this might help
lapply(split(1:5, cut(1:5, breaks=c(0, 2, 5))), function(i) matrix(sample(i, 25, replace=TRUE), ncol=5))
Use cut and split to partition your vector of character labels before sampling them. Here I split your character labels at the value 2. Also, rather than sampling 5 numbers 5 times, you can sample 25 numbers once, and convert to matrix.