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Re: Noob ? about Transpose and List Operations

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg63692] Re: [mg63650] Noob ? about Transpose and List Operations
• From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
• Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2006 01:48:47 -0500 (EST)
• Organization: Mathematics & Statistics, Univ. of Mass./Amherst
• References: <200601090948.EAA29578@smc.vnet.net>
• Reply-to: murray at math.umass.edu
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Transpose alone performs the operation you want (of interchanging the 
"axes").  MatrixForm is just used for display purposes.  As the Help 
Browser says:

   MatrixForm acts as a ?wrapper?, which affects printing,
   but not evaluation.

For example:

   B = { {1, 2}, {3, 4} };

   Transpose[B]
{{1, 3}, {2, 4}}

Then MatrixForm[%] will display the result as a matrix.  But probably 
you do NOT want to use a Set statement, such as T = 
MatrixForm[Transpose[B]].  Rather, if you want to assign the transposed 
list to a new name and see it as a matrix at the same time, you could 
use, for example:

   T = Transpose[B]; MatrixForm[T]

By the way, I'd be careful about using the notation B' for the name of 
the transpose, since the symbol that looks like a prime was probably 
typed uisng the single-quote key, and a single quote is one notation for 
taking derivatives.  (Mathematica also provides a separate symbol for 
prime that you can form by typing either the three-key sequence
Esc ' Esc or else the characters: \[Prime]  (Or you could use a palette 
for that.)



Tarah wrote:
> Hi!  I'm trying to transpose a matrix B,
> 
> In[61]:=  B' = MatrixForm[Transpose[B]]
> 
> and instead of getting the transpose, I get as output the same matrix B with two brackets and the word "Transpose" surrounding it.  This is highly unhelpful ;-)  What am I doing wrong?  
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> 

-- 
Murray Eisenberg                     murray at math.umass.edu
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower      phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts                413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street            fax   413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305

• References:
  • Noob ? about Transpose and List Operations
    • From: Tarah <tarahw@umich.edu>