Number of rows and columns of a matrix in Matlab

In this lesson, I will teach you how to extract the number of rows and columns of a matrix in Matlab.

Let's take a practical example.

Create a rectangular matrix with two rows and three columns.

>> M=[1 2 3;4 5 6]
M =
1 2 3
4 5 6

To extract the number of rows and columns of the matrix, you need to use the function size()

>> size(M)

The size() function returns the dimensions and the number of rows and columns of the matrix.

The result is a list of values.

ans = 2 3

In this case, the matrix is defined in two dimensions because the list has two values.

• The first value in the list (2) indicates the number of rows of the matrix.
• The second value in the list (3) indicates the number of columns of the matrix.

Therefore, the matrix has 2 rows and 3 columns.

$$ M = \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 2 & 3 \\ 4 & 5 & 6 \end{pmatrix} $$

It is a rectangular matrix.