colon (:) Ranging operator. Addresses all elements along an array dimension or of a list.

## Description

Colon symbol `:` can be used to form implicit vectors (see also linspace, logspace) :

j:k

  is the vector `[j, j+1,...,k]` (empty if `j>k`);

j:d:k

  is the vector `[j, j+d, ..., j+m*d]` .

The colon notation can also be used to pick out selected rows, columns and elements of vectors and other arrays (see also extraction, insertion):

A(:)

  is the vector of all the elements of `A` regarded as a single column;

A(:,j)

  is the `j`-th column of `A`;

A(i,:)

  is the `i`-th row of `A`;

A(j:k)

  is `[A(j),A(j+1),...,A(k)]`;

A(:,j:k)

  is

                    [A(1,j)  A(1,j+1)  ... A(1,k)
                    A(2,j)  A(2,j+1)  ... A(2,k)
                    . . . . . . . . . . .
                    A(M,j)  A(M,j+1)  ... A(M,k)]

  if size of `A` is `M`-by-`N`;
A(j:k,:)

  is

                    [A(j,1)    A(j,2)   ... A(j,N)
                    A(j+1,1)  A(j+1,2) ... A(j+1,N)
                    . . . . . . . . . . .
                    A(k,1)    A(k,2)   ... A(k,N)]

  if size of `A` is `M`-by-`N`;
A(:)=w

  fills the array `A` with entries of `w` (taken column by column if `w` is a 2D array). The amount of entries of `A` must be equal to the amount of entries of `w`.

Please note that even if `i`, `j`, `k` or `d` have a decimal part, only the integer part will be used.

`type(:)` is 129. `typeof(:)` is `"implicitlist"`.

## Examples

    a = 1:5
    b = 1:3:12
    A = matrix(1:42,7,6);
    // vector of all the elements of A
    A(:)

    // the j-th column of A
    A(:,j)

    // the i-th row of A
    A(i,:)

    // elements of columns from j to k and all rows
    A(:,j:k)

    // elements of all columns and rows from j to k
    A(j:k,:)

    w = matrix(101:142,7,6);
    A(:) = w

    // if indices are not integer
    i = 1:0.4:10; //indices
    A(i)

## See also

- dollar
- extraction
- matrix
- linspace
- logspace

## History

6.0

- `type(:)` is 129 (as for `1:$`) instead of 1. `size(:)` is undefined (instead of `[-1,-1]`).
- `typeof(:)` is now `"implicitlist"`, like `1:$`.
- `%i:10` now yields an error.