--- description: In this tutorial, you will learn How to Create a Matrix Function in R. Learn how to add a column to a matrix, Slice a Matrix with detailed step-by-step examples. title: Matrix Function in R: Create, Print, add Column & Slice image: https://www.guru99.com/images/r-matrix.png --- [Skip to content](#main) ## Matrix Function in R A matrix function in R is a 2-dimensional array that has m number of rows and n number of columns. In other words, matrix in R programming is a combination of two or more vectors with the same data type. **Note:** It is possible to create more than two dimensions arrays with matrix function in R. [![Matrix Function in R](https://www.guru99.com/images/r_programming/032918_1422_RMatrixTuto1.png)](https://www.guru99.com/images/r%5Fprogramming/032918%5F1422%5FRMatrixTuto1.png) ## How to Create a Matrix in R We can create a matrix with the function matrix(). Following is a function to create a matrix in R which takes three arguments: matrix(data, nrow, ncol, byrow = FALSE) **Arguments:** * **data**: The collection of elements that R will arrange into the rows and columns of the matrix \\ * **nrow**: Number of rows * **ncol**: Number of columns * **byrow**: The rows are filled from the left to the right. We use \`byrow = FALSE\` (default values), if we want the matrix to be filled by the columns i.e. the values are filled top to bottom. Let’s construct two 5×2 matrix with a sequence of number from 1 to 10, one with byrow = TRUE and one with byrow = FALSE to see the difference. # Construct a matrix with 5 rows that contain the numbers 1 up to 10 and byrow = TRUE matrix_a <-matrix(1:10, byrow = TRUE, nrow = 5) matrix_a **Output:** [![Create a Matrix in R](https://www.guru99.com/images/r_programming/032918_1422_RMatrixTuto2.png)](https://www.guru99.com/images/r%5Fprogramming/032918%5F1422%5FRMatrixTuto2.png) ### Print dimension of the matrix with dim() Now, let’s print dimension of the matrix in R with dim(). The syntax to print matrix in R using dim() is: # Print dimension of the matrix with dim() dim(matrix_a) **Output:** ## [1] 5 2 ### Construct a matrix with 5 rows that contain the numbers 1 up to 10 and byrow = FALSE # Construct a matrix with 5 rows that contain the numbers 1 up to 10 and byrow = FALSE matrix_b <-matrix(1:10, byrow = FALSE, nrow = 5) matrix_b **Output:** [![Matrix with 5 Rows that Contain byrow = FALSE](https://www.guru99.com/images/r_programming/032918_1422_RMatrixTuto3.png)](https://www.guru99.com/images/r%5Fprogramming/032918%5F1422%5FRMatrixTuto3.png) ### Print dimension of the matrix with dim() Again, print the dimension of the matrix using dim(). Below is a syntax of R print matrix dimension: # Print dimension of the matrix with dim() dim(matrix_b) **Output:** ## [1] 5 2 **Note**: Using command matrix\_b <-matrix(1:10, byrow = FALSE, ncol = 2) will have same effect as above. You can also create a 4×3 matrix using ncol. R will create 3 columns and fill the row from top to bottom. Check an example matrix_c <-matrix(1:12, byrow = FALSE, ncol = 3) matrix_c **Output:** ## [,1] [,2] [,3] ## [1,] 1 5 9 ## [2,] 2 6 10 ## [3,] 3 7 11 ## [4,] 4 8 12 **Example:** dim(matrix_c) **Output:** ## [1] 4 3 ### RELATED ARTICLES * [R Tutorial for Beginners ](https://www.guru99.com/r-tutorial.html "R Tutorial for Beginners") * [R Data Frame: How to Create, Append, Select & Subset ](https://www.guru99.com/r-data-frames.html "R Data Frame: How to Create, Append, Select & Subset") * [How to Replace Missing Values(NA) in R: na.omit & na.rm ](https://www.guru99.com/r-replace-missing-values.html "How to Replace Missing Values(NA) in R: na.omit & na.rm") * [Decision Tree in R: Classification Tree with Example ](https://www.guru99.com/r-decision-trees.html "Decision Tree in R: Classification Tree with Example") ## Add a Column to a Matrix with the cbind() You can add column to matrix R with the cbind() command. cbind() means column binding.cbind() can concatenate as many matrix or columns as specified. For example, our previous example created a 5×2 matrix. We concatenate a third column and verify the dimension is 5×3 **Example:** # concatenate c(1:5) to the matrix_a matrix_a1 <- cbind(matrix_a, c(1:5)) # Check the dimension dim(matrix_a1) **Output:** ## [1] 5 3 **Example:** matrix_a1 **Output** ## [,1] [,2] [,3] ## [1,] 1 2 1 ## [2,] 3 4 2 ## [3,] 5 6 3 ## [4,] 7 8 4 ## [5,] 9 10 5 **Example:** We can also add column to matrix R, more than one time. Let’s see the next sequence of number to the matrix\_a2 matrix. The dimension of new matrices in R will be 4×6 with number from 1 to 24. matrix_a2 <-matrix(13:24, byrow = FALSE, ncol = 3) **Output:** ## [,1] [,2] [,3] ## [1,] 13 17 21 ## [2,] 14 18 22 ## [3,] 15 19 23 ## [4,] 16 20 24 **Example:** matrix_c <-matrix(1:12, byrow = FALSE, ncol = 3) matrix_d <- cbind(matrix_a2, matrix_c) dim(matrix_d) **Output:** ## [1] 4 6 **NOTE**: The number of rows of matrices in R should be equal for cbind work cbind()concatenate columns, rbind() appends rows. Let’s add one row to our matrix\_c matrix and verify the dimension is 5×3 matrix_c <-matrix(1:12, byrow = FALSE, ncol = 3) # Create a vector of 3 columns add_row <- c(1:3) # Append to the matrix matrix_c <- rbind(matrix_c, add_row) # Check the dimension dim(matrix_c) **Output:** ## [1] 5 3 ## Slice a Matrix We can select elements one or many elements from a matrix in [R programming](https://www.guru99.com/r-programming-introduction-basics.html) by using the square brackets \[ \]. This is where slicing comes into the picture. **For example:** * matrix\_c\[1,2\] selects the element at the first row and second column. * matrix\_c\[1:3,2:3\] results in a R slice matrix with the data on the rows 1, 2, 3 and columns 2, 3, * matrix\_c\[,1\] selects all elements of the first column. * matrix\_c\[1,\] selects all elements of the first row. **Here is the output you get for the above codes** [![Slice a Matrix](https://www.guru99.com/images/r_programming/032918_1422_RMatrixTuto4.png)](https://www.guru99.com/images/r%5Fprogramming/032918%5F1422%5FRMatrixTuto4.png) #### Summarize this post with: ChatGPT Perplexity Grok Google AI **Stay Updated on AI** **Get Weekly AI Skills, Trends, Actionable Advice.** ##### Sign up for the newsletter Subscribe for Free You have successfully subscribed. 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