Matlab Arrays

Array Basics

An array is an n-dimensional collection of numbers. Matrices are 2-dimensional arrays, and vectors are 1-dimensional arrays.

Vectors can be either a row or column vector:

$\quad a=\left[ \begin{array}{c} a_1 \\ a_2 \\ a_3 \\ \vdots \\ a_n \end{array} \right] \quad b = \left[ \begin{array}{cccc} b_1 & b_2 & \cdots & b_n \end{array} \right] \quad c = \left[ \begin{array}{c} 1 \\ 4 \\ 3.2 \\ \pi \end{array} \right]$

We refer to the elements of an array by their position in the array. For example, the third element in $c$ is 3.2, and the second element in $a$ is $a_2$.

Matrices are two-dimensional arrays, whose elements are referred to by the row and column that they belong to. For example,

$\quad A = \left[ \begin{array}{cc} a_{11} & a_{12} \\ a_{21} & a_{22} \\ a_{31} & a_{32} \end{array}\right]$

is a matrix with three rows and two columns. We refer to this as a $\scriptstyle 3 \times 2$ matrix. The first index is the row and the second index is the column.

Transposing Arrays

Occasionally we want to transpose an array. This is done by exchanging rows and columns. For example,

$A = \left[ \begin{array}{cc} 2 & 4 \\ 6 & 8 \\ 10 & 12 \end{array} \right] \quad \Rightarrow \quad A^\mathsf{T} = \left[ \begin{array}{ccc} 2 & 6 & 10 \\ 4 & 8 & 12 \end{array} \right]$

Here the $^\mathsf{T}$ superscript indicates transpose. Note that if we transpose an array twice, we recover the original array. In other words, $\left(A^\mathsf{T}\right)^\mathsf{T} = A$.

Creating Vectors in Matlab

Manually Creating Vectors

Often we need to create small vectors with only a few numbers. In this case, it is easiest to create the vector in one Matlab statement. For example, to create the vector $a = \left[ \begin{array}{cc} 2 \\ 4 \\ 6 \\ 8 \end{array} \right]$ we could use any of the following Matlab commands:

 a = [ 2; 4; 6; 8; ];  % create a column vector
 a = [ 2 4 6 8 ]';     % create a row vector and then
                       % transpose it to produce a column vector.
 a = [ 2
       4
       6
       8 ];  % creates a column vector.

Similarly, a row vector such as b = [1 3 5 7 ] may be created as

 b = [ 1 3 5 7 ];
 b = [ 1, 3, 5, 7 ];
 b = [ 1; 3; 5; 7 ]';  % transpose a column vector.

Note that the semicolon (;) instructs Matlab that we have the end of a row in the matrix. Commas may be used to separate columns in the matrix, but they are not necessary.

Using the ":" operator to create arrays

Sometimes we have vectors that have specific patterns. For example, a=[1 2 3 4 5]. The : operator can help us create such arrays:

 array = lower : increment : upper;

This creates an array starting at lower and ending at upper with spacing of increment. You may eliminate the increment argument, in which case it defaults to 1.

Examples:

 a = 1:5;        % creates a=[ 1 2 3 4 5 ]
 b = 1:1:5;      % creates b=[ 1 2 3 4 5 ]
 c = 1:2:7;      % creates c=[ 1 3 5 7 ]
 d = 1:2:8;      % creates d=[ 1 3 5 7 ]
 e = 1.1:5       % creates e=[ 1.1 2.3 3.1 4.1 ]
 f = 0.1:0.1:0.5 % creates f=[ 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 ]
 g = 5:-1:1;     % creates g=[ 5 4 3 2 1 ];
 h = (1:3)';     % creates a column vector with elements 1, 2, 3.

Linspace and Logspace

Occasionally we want to create numbers that are equally spaced between two limits. We can use the linspace command to do this.

 linspace( lo, hi, n );
   Creates a row vector with n points equally spaced between lo and hi.

Examples:

 a = linspace(1,5,5);    % creates a=[ 1 2 3 4 5 ]
 b = linspace(1,5,4);    % creates b=[ 1.0 2.333 3.667 5.0 ]
 c = linspace(5,1,5);    % creates c=[ 5 4 3 2 1 ]
 d = linspace(1,5,5)';   % creates a column vector

Sometimes we want points logarithmically spaced. For example, we may want to create a vector a=[ 0.1 1 10 100]. This can be accomplished using the logspace command:

 logspace( lo, hi, n );
   Creates a vector with n points spaced logarithmically between $10^\mathrm{lo}$ and $10^\mathrm{hi}$

Examples:

 a = logspace(-1,3,5);    % creates a=[ 0.1 1 10 100 1000 ]
 b = logspace(3,-1,5);    % creates b=[ 1000 100 10 1 0.1 ]
 c = logspace(-1,3,5)';   % creates a column vector

Creating Matrices

Manually Creating Matrices

Matrices may be created directly in much the same way as vectors are. As an example, let's build the matrix $A = \left[ \begin{array}{cc} 2 & 4 \\ 6 & 8 \\ 10 & 12 \end{array} \right]$. This may be done in several ways.

 A = [ 2 4; 6 8; 10 12 ];
 A = [ 2 4
       6 8
       10 12 ];

Note that a semicolon (;) separates each row of the matrix while spaces separate each column.

We may also create a matrix from vectors. For example, we may construct A from its rows as follows:

 arow1 = [ 2 4 ];
 arow2 = [ 6 8 ];
 arow3 = [ 10 12 ];
 A = [ arow1; arow2; arow3 ];

Similarly, we can build a matrix from its columns:

 acol1 = [2 6 10]';
 acol2 = [4; 8; 12];
 A = [ acol1 acol2 ];

Shortcuts for Special Matrices

• ones(nrow,ncol)
• zeros(nrow,ncol)
• eye(nrow,ncol)
• rand(nrow,ncol)

Accessing Arrays

Information about Arrays

• size
• length
• max
• min