4.13: Sorting Arrays — Read — Invisible Network

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The sort function arranges values in ascending order by default. For a row or column vector, this is straightforward. For a 2D array, MATLAB sorts each column independently.

Example \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Using sort

rowEx = [76, 75, 40, 66, 18]; 

sortedRowEx = sort(rowEx) % sorts the row vector


colEx = [71; 4; 28; 5; 10]; % sort the column vector

sortedColEx = sort(colEx)


array2 = [29, 90, 14, 85;
          51, 96, 15, 26;
          70, 55, 14, 82];

sortedArray2 = sort(array2) % sort the 2D array

Solution

sortedRowEx =

   18   40   66   75   76

sortedColEx =

    4
    5
   10
   28
   71

sortedArray2 =

   29   55   14   26
   51   90   14   82
   70   96   15   85

To sort in descending order, use the second input argument "descend".

sort(rowEx, 'descend')

This page titled 4.13: Sorting Arrays was last modified on Tue, 30 Jun 2026 02:11:57 GMT and is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Zara Noroozi.

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Example \(\PageIndex{1}\)