`max`

Largest element, along a dimension, or the larger of two arrays.

Category: Language Fundamentals > Data Types

Syntax

M = max(A)

Largest element of a vector, or of each column of a matrix.

[M, I] = max(A)

Also returns the index of the largest element; the first one when there are ties.

M = max(A, [], dim)

Largest along dimension dim.

M = max(A, [], 'all')

Largest of all elements.

M = max(A, B)

Element-wise larger of A and B, with implicit expansion.

Description

By default NaN values are ignored: max([1 NaN 3]) is 3. The result is NaN only when all values are NaN. The empty matrix gives []. For complex numbers the comparison uses the absolute value, and for ties the angle.

The two-array form never returns the index, and the result has the class of the integer operand when one is an integer, saturating where needed.

Input arguments

A, B: Numeric, logical or char arrays, or datetime or duration arrays.
dim: Dimension to work along.
'omitnan' | 'includenan': Whether NaN values are skipped (the default) or make the result NaN.

Output arguments

M: The largest values.
I: Indices of the maxima along the working dimension.

Example

Maxima of a matrix

A = [1 5; 7 2];
max(A)
max(A, [], 2)
max(A, [], 'all')
[m, i] = max([3 9 2 9])
max([1 NaN 3])
max(4, [1 6 2])

Output

ans = 1×2

     7     5
ans = 2×1

     5
     7
ans = 7
m = 9
i = 2
ans = 3
ans = 1×3

     4     6     4

max