# matmult

0th

Percentile

##### Matrix Multiplication

Multiplies two matrices, if they are conformable. If one argument is a vector, it will be promoted to either a row or column matrix to make the two arguments conformable. If both are vectors of the same length, it will return the inner product (as a matrix).

Keywords
arith, array
##### Usage
x %*% y
##### Arguments
x, y

numeric or complex matrices or vectors.

##### Details

When a vector is promoted to a matrix, its names are not promoted to row or column names, unlike as.matrix.

Promotion of a vector to a 1-row or 1-column matrix happens when one of the two choices allows x and y to get conformable dimensions.

This operator is S4 generic but not S3 generic. S4 methods need to be written for a function of two arguments named x and y.

##### Value

A double or complex matrix product. Use drop to remove dimensions which have only one level.

##### Note

The propagation of NaN/Inf values, precision, and performance of matrix products can be controlled by options("matprod").

##### References

Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988) The New S Language. Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole.

For matrix crossproducts, crossprod() and tcrossprod() are typically preferable. matrix, Arithmetic, diag.
library(base) # NOT RUN { x <- 1:4 (z <- x %*% x) # scalar ("inner") product (1 x 1 matrix) drop(z) # as scalar y <- diag(x) z <- matrix(1:12, ncol = 3, nrow = 4) y %*% z y %*% x x %*% z # }