Valid Combinations of Unlike Classes
Matrices and arrays can be composed of elements of almost any MATLAB data type as long as all
elements in the matrix are of the same type. If you do include elements of unlike classes when
constructing a matrix, MATLAB converts some elements so that all elements of the resulting matrix
are of the same type.
Data type conversion is done with respect to a preset precedence of classes. The following table
shows the five classes you can concatenate with an unlike type without generating an error (that is,
with the exception of character and logical).
TYPE
character
integer
single
double
logical
character
character
character
character
character
invalid
integer
character
integer
integer
integer
integer
single
character
integer
single
single
single
double
character
integer
single
double
double
logical
invalid
integer
single
double
logical
For example, concatenating a double and single matrix always yields a matrix of type single.
MATLAB converts the double element to single to accomplish this.
See Also
More About
•
“Combining Unlike Integer Types” on page 15-3
•
“Combining Integer and Noninteger Data” on page 15-5
•
“Combining Cell Arrays with Non-Cell Arrays” on page 15-6
•
“Concatenation Examples” on page 15-8
•
“Concatenating Objects of Different Classes”
15 Combining Unlike Classes
15-2