`zeros`

Creates an array of zeros.

Category: Language Fundamentals > Matrices and Arrays

Syntax

Z = zeros(n)

Returns an n-by-n matrix of zeros.

Z = zeros(m, n, ...)

Returns an array of zeros with the given dimensions.

Z = zeros(sz)

Takes the size from the vector sz.

Z = zeros(___, classname)

Creates zeros of the given class, such as 'int8' or 'single'.

Z = zeros(___, 'like', P)

Matches the class (and complexness) of the prototype P.

Description

zeros is mainly used to preallocate: creating the output array up front and filling it inside a loop is much faster than growing it one element at a time.

A dimension of 0 gives an empty array, for example zeros(0,3). Calling zeros with no arguments returns the scalar 0.

Input arguments

n, m, ...: Nonnegative integer dimensions. Negative values count as 0.
classname: Output class; the default is 'double'.

Output arguments

Z: Array of zeros of the requested size and class.

Example

zeros(2, 3)
zeros(2, 'int8')
size(zeros(0, 3))

Output

ans = 2×3

     0     0     0
     0     0     0
ans = 2×2 int8 matrix

   0   0
   0   0
ans = 1×2

     0     3

zeros