# con¶

## Purpose¶

Requests input from the keyboard (console), and returns it in a matrix.

## Format¶

x = con(r, c)
Parameters
• r (scalar) – row dimension of matrix.

• c (scalar) – column dimension of matrix.

Returns

x (rxc matrix) – Matrix storing input from the keyboard.

## Examples¶

n = con(1, 1);
print rndn(n, n);


If you enter 2 at the con() generated prompt:

? 2


the code above will return a 2x2 random matrix, similar to:

-1.2505596        1.6322417
-1.0894098       0.74763307


In this example, the con() function is used to obtain the size of a square matrix of Normal random variables which is to be printed out.

## Remarks¶

con() gets input from the active window. GAUSS will not ‘’see’’ any input until you press ENTER, so follow each entry with an ENTER.

r and c may be any scalar-valued expressions. Non-integers will be truncated to an integer.

If r and c are both set to 1, con() will cause a question mark to appear in the window, indicating that it is waiting for a scalar input.

Otherwise, con will cause the following prompt to appear in the window:

- [1,1]


indicating that it is waiting for the $$[1,1]$$ element of the matrix to be inputted. The - means that con() will move horizontally through the matrix as you input the matrix elements. To change this or other options, or to move to another part of the matrix, use the following commands:

 u up one row U first row d down one row D last row l left one column L first column r right one column R last column t first element b last element g #, # goto element g # goto element of vector h move horizontally, default v move vertically, default exttt\ move diagonally, default s show size of matrix n display element as numeric, default c display element as character e exp(1) p pi . missing value ? show help screen x exit

If the desired matrix is 1xN or Nx1, then con() will automatically exit after the last element has been entered, allowing you to input the vector quickly.

If the desired matrix is NxK, you will need to type 'x' to exit when you have finished entering the matrix data. If you exit before all elements have been entered, unspecified elements will be zeroed out.

Use a leading single quote for character input.

Functions cons(), let, load