Mathematics

Sparse Matrices

MATLAB supports sparse matrices, matrices that contain a small proportion of nonzero elements. This characteristic provides advantages in both matrix storage space and computation time. This chapter explains how to create sparse matrices in MATLAB, and how to use them in both specialized and general mathematical operations. It includes:

Function Summary	A summary of the sparse matrix functions
Introduction	An introduction to sparse matrices in MATLAB
Viewing Sparse Matrices	How to obtain quantitative and graphical information about sparse matrices
Example: Adjacency Matrices and Graphs	Examples that use adjacency matrices to demonstrate sparse matrices
Sparse Matrix Operations	A discussion of functions that perform operations specific to sparse matrices
Selected Bibliography	Published materials that support concepts described in this chapter

Selected Bibliography Function Summary