MATLAB Language Getting started with MATLAB Language Matrices and Arrays
Example
In MATLAB, the most basic data type is the numeric array. It can be a scalar, a 1-D vector, a 2-D matrix, or an N-D multidimensional array.
% a 1-by-1 scalar value
x = 1;
To create a row vector, enter the elements inside brackets, separated by spaces or commas:
% a 1-by-4 row vector
v = [1, 2, 3, 4];
v = [1 2 3 4];
To create a column vector, separate the elements with semicolons:
% a 4-by-1 column vector
v = [1; 2; 3; 4];
To create a matrix, we enter the rows as before separated by semicolons:
% a 2 row-by-4 column matrix
M = [1 2 3 4; 5 6 7 8];
% a 4 row-by-2 column matrix
M = [1 2; ...
4 5; ...
6 7; ...
8 9];
Notice you cannot create a matrix with unequal row / column size. All rows must be the same length, and all columns must be the same length:
% an unequal row / column matrix
M = [1 2 3 ; 4 5 6 7]; % This is not valid and will return an error
% another unequal row / column matrix
M = [1 2 3; ...
4 5; ...
6 7 8; ...
9 10]; % This is not valid and will return an error
To transpose a vector or a matrix, we use the .'-operator, or the ' operator to take its Hermitian conjugate, which is the complex conjugate of its transpose. For real matrices, these two are the same:
% create a row vector and transpose it into a column vector
v = [1 2 3 4].'; % v is equal to [1; 2; 3; 4];
% create a 2-by-4 matrix and transpose it to get a 4-by-2 matrix
M = [1 2 3 4; 5 6 7 8].'; % M is equal to [1 5; 2 6; 3 7; 4 8]
% transpose a vector or matrix stored as a variable
A = [1 2; 3 4];
B = A.'; % B is equal to [1 3; 2 4]
For arrays of more than two-dimensions, there is no direct language syntax to enter them literally. Instead we must use functions to construct them (such as ones, zeros, rand) or by manipulating other arrays (using functions such as cat, reshape, permute). Some examples:
% a 5-by-2-by-4-by-3 array (4-dimensions)
arr = ones(5, 2, 4, 3);
% a 2-by-3-by-2 array (3-dimensions)
arr = cat(3, [1 2 3; 4 5 6], [7 8 9; 0 1 2]);
% a 5-by-4-by-3-by-2 (4-dimensions)
arr = reshape(1:120, [5 4 3 2]);
