det                  package:Matrix                  R Documentation

_C_a_l_c_u_l_a_t_e _t_h_e _D_e_t_e_r_m_i_n_a_n_t _o_f _a _M_a_t_r_i_x

_D_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n:

     `det' calculates the determinant (or its logarithm) of a matrix

_U_s_a_g_e:

     det.Matrix(x, logarithm = TRUE)

_A_r_g_u_m_e_n_t_s:

       x: numeric matrix.

logarithm: logical. When `TRUE', the default, the logarithm of the
          determinant is returned. When `FALSE', the determinant of `x'
          is returned. 

_D_e_t_a_i_l_s:

     `det' is a generic function with special methods for different
     types of matrices or decompositions. Use `methods("det")' to list
     all the methods for the `det' generic.

     The `det' function from the base R package has a slightly
     different calling sequence.  In particular, it does not have a
     `logarithm' argument and always returns the determinant, never the
     logarithm of the determinant.  It is used as the default method
     for the generic `det' function defined here.  Be aware that the
     `logarithm' argument will only have an effect when `det' is called
     on objects that inherit from the `Matrix' class.

_V_a_l_u_e:

     `det.default' returns a numeric value.  Other `det' methods return
     a list with two elements 

 modulus: a numeric value.  The modulus (absolute value) of the
          determinant or the logarithm of the modulus.  The value of
          the `logarithm' argument is included as an attribute.

    sign: a numeric value, which is +/- 1 according to whether the
          determinant is positive or negative.

     normal-bracket30bracket-normal

_N_o_t_e:

     Often, computing the determinant is not what you should be doing
     to solve a given problem.

_E_x_a_m_p_l_e_s:

     h9 <- hilbert(9)
     det(h9)
     det(h9, log = FALSE)

