Vectors

A vector is a one-dimensional array of numbers. MATLAB allows creating two types of vectors:

• Row vectors
• Column vectors

Row Vectors:

Row vectors are created by enclosing the set of elements in square brackets, using space or comma to delimit the elements.

r = [7 8 9 10 11]

MATLAB will execute the above statement and return the following result:

r =
  Columns 1 through 4
       7              8              9             10       
  Column 5
      11    

Column Vectors:

Column vectors are created by enclosing the set of elements in square brackets, using semicolon to delimit the elements.

c = [7;  8;  9;  10; 11]

MATLAB will execute the above statement and return the following result:

c =
       7       
       8       
       9       
      10       
      11  
 

Referencing the Elements of a Vector

You can reference one or more of the elements of a vector in several ways. The i^th component of a vector v is referred as v(i). For example:

v = [ 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6]; % creating a column vector of 6 elements
v(3)

MATLAB will execute the above statement and return the following result:

ans =
     3 

When you reference a vector with a colon, such as v(:), all the components of the vector are listed.

v = [ 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6]; % creating a column vector of 6 elements
v(:)

MATLAB will execute the above statement and return the following result:

ans =
     1
     2
     3
     4
     5
     6

MATLAB allows you to select a range of elements from a vector.
For example, let us create a row vector rv of 9 elements, then we will reference the elements 3 to 7 by writing rv(3:7) and create a new vector named sub_rv.

rv = [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9];
sub_rv = rv(3:7)

MATLAB will execute the above statement and return the following result:

sub_rv =
     3     4     5     6     7