MATLAB Functions Help Desk

zeros

Purpose

Create an array of all zeros

Syntax

Description

B = zeros(n) returns an n-by-n matrix of zeros. An error message appears if n is not a scalar.

B = zeros(m,n) or B = zeros([m n]) returns an m-by-n matrix of zeros.

B = zeros(d1,d2,d3...) or B = zeros([d1 d2 d3...]) returns an array of zeros with dimensions d1-by-d2-by-d3-by-... .

B = zeros(size(A)) returns an array the same size as A consisting of all zeros.

Remarks

The MATLAB language does not have a dimension statement--MATLAB automatically allocates storage for matrices. Nevertheless, most MATLAB programs execute faster if the zeros function is used to set aside storage for a matrix whose elements are to be generated one at a time, or a row or column at a time.

Examples

With n = 1000, the for loop

takes about 1.2 seconds to execute on a Sun SPARC-1. If the loop is preceded by the statement x = zeros(1,n); the computations require less than 0.2 seconds.

See Also

eye         Identity matrix

ones        Create an array of all ones

rand        Uniformly distributed random numbers and arrays

randn       Normally distributed random numbers and arrays



[ Previous | Help Desk | Next ]