Forming a block diagonal matrix of one certain matrix?
    26 views (last 30 days)
  
       Show older comments
    
I have a matrix A which is m*n. I want to create a block diagonal matrix of size 100*100 whose diagonal elements are the matrix A.
   [A,0,0,0
    0,A,0,0
    0,0,A,0
    0,0,0,A
      ...  ]
function, out = blkdiag(A,A,A,A,...) needs writing down the matrix so many times. Is there any other way to do this (not typing so many matrices as input arguments of blkdiag)?
2 Comments
Accepted Answer
  Star Strider
      
      
 on 14 Feb 2017
        Cell arrays create comma-separated lists, which are exactly what the blkdiag function wants as its arguments.
See if this does what you want:
A = [1 2; 3 4];                                         % Original Matrix (Created)
N = 3;                                                  % Number Of Times To Repeat
Ar = repmat(A, 1, N);                                   % Repeat Matrix
Ac = mat2cell(Ar, size(A,1), repmat(size(A,2),1,N));    % Create Cell Array Of Orignal Repeated Matrix
Out = blkdiag(Ac{:})                                    % Desired Result
Out =
     1     2     0     0     0     0
     3     4     0     0     0     0
     0     0     1     2     0     0
     0     0     3     4     0     0
     0     0     0     0     1     2
     0     0     0     0     3     4
3 Comments
  Bruno Luong
      
      
 on 30 Jan 2021
				
      Edited: Bruno Luong
      
      
 on 30 Jan 2021
  
			The MAT2CELL step can be removed
A = [1 2; 3 4];
Ac = repmat({A}, 1, 3);  
Out = blkdiag(Ac{:})
More Answers (2)
  Honglei Chen
    
      
 on 14 Feb 2017
        eval(sprintf('Out = blkdiag(A%s);',repmat(',A',1,99)))
HTH
1 Comment
  Stephen23
      
      
 on 18 Apr 2018
				
      Edited: Stephen23
      
      
 on 18 Apr 2018
  
			The MATLAB documentation for eval recommends that "Whenever possible, do not include output arguments within the input to the eval function, such as eval(['output = ',expression]). The preferred syntax,"
output = eval(expression)
"allows the MATLAB parser to perform stricter checks on your code, preventing untrapped errors and other unexpected behavior." Because the variable Out does not change this could easily have been achieved in this solution, and thus would follow the advice given in the MATLAB help.
Note that Star Strider's solution avoids all of these problems by simply avoiding eval entirely:
See Also
Categories
				Find more on Operating on Diagonal Matrices in Help Center and File Exchange
			
	Community Treasure Hunt
Find the treasures in MATLAB Central and discover how the community can help you!
Start Hunting!







