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Re: Manipulating a matrix

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg59246] Re: Manipulating a matrix
  • From: Jean-Marc Gulliet <jeanmarc.gulliet at gmail.com>
  • Date: Wed, 3 Aug 2005 01:19:50 -0400 (EDT)
  • Organization: The Open University, Milton Keynes, U.K.
  • References: <dcmuig$glg$1@smc.vnet.net>
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Ramier wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I think that my question is rather simple and maybe I ought to go
> deeper into Mathematica book:
> I have a n x n matrix and I'd like to remove the first line and the
> first column in order to get the (n-1)x(n-1) matrix with the entries
> remaining. Is there a simple way to do that ?
> 
> Perhaps my question is really simple or idiot but I've never used
> Mathematica before.
> 
> Thanks a lot,
> 
> Wissam
> 
Hi,

You can use the *Drop* function as in the following examples. Say we 
have a 3x3 matrix called "mat"

In[1]:=
mat = {{1, 2, 3}, {4, 5, 6}, {7, 8, 9}}

Out[1]=
{{1, 2, 3}, {4, 5, 6}, {7, 8, 9}}

In the Mathematica front-end we can see the matrix as a matrix and not a 
list of list:

In[2]:=
MatrixForm[mat]

Now we get rid of the first element of the list, that is the first line 
of the matrix:

In[3]:=
m = Drop[mat, 1]

Out[3]=
{{4, 5, 6}, {7, 8, 9}}

In[4]:=
MatrixForm[m]

To get discard the first column we transpose the matrix, drop the first 
line of the transposed matrix, and transpose again to get the original 
order of lines and columns:

In[5]:=
m = Transpose[Drop[Transpose[m], 1]]

Out[5]=
{{5, 6}, {8, 9}}

In[6]:=
MatrixForm[m]

Of course, you can do all these operations in only one-step as follows:

In[7]:=
m = Transpose[Drop[Transpose[Drop[mat, 1]], 1]]

Out[7]=
{{5, 6}, {8, 9}}

Best regards,
/J.M.


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