Language Reference

SPREAD(SOURCE, DIM, NCOPIES)

Replicates an array in an additional dimension by making copies of existing elements along that dimension.

SOURCE

can be an array or scalar. It can have any data type. The rank of SOURCE has a maximum value of 19.

DIM

is an integer scalar in the range 1 <= DIM <= rank(SOURCE)+1. Unlike most other array intrinsic functions, SPREAD requires the DIM argument.

NCOPIES

is an integer scalar. It becomes the extent of the extra dimension added to the result.

Class

Transformational function

Result Type and Attributes

The result is an array of rank rank(SOURCE)+1 and with the same type and type parameters as source.

Result Value

If SOURCE is a scalar, the result is a one-dimensional array with NCOPIES elements, each with value SOURCE.

If SOURCE is an array, the result is an array of rank rank(SOURCE) + 1. Along dimension DIM, each array element of the result is equal to the corresponding array element in SOURCE.

If NCOPIES is less than or equal to zero, the result is a zero-sized array.

Examples

! A is the array (/ -4.7, 6.1, 0.3 /)
 
       RES = SPREAD( A, DIM = 1, NCOPIES = 3 )
! The result is   | -4.7 6.1 0.3 |
!                 | -4.7 6.1 0.3 |
!                 | -4.7 6.1 0.3 |
! DIM=1 extends each column.  Each element in RES(:,1)
! becomes a copy of A(1), each element in RES(:,2) becomes
! a copy of A(2), and so on.
 
       RES = SPREAD( A, DIM = 2, NCOPIES = 3 )
! The result is   | -4.7 -4.7 -4.7 |
!                 |  6.1  6.1  6.1 |
!                 |  0.3  0.3  0.3 |
! DIM=2 extends each row.  Each element in RES(1,:)
! becomes a copy of A(1), each element in RES(2,:)
! becomes a copy of A(2), and so on.
 
       RES = SPREAD( A, DIM = 2, NCOPIES = 0 )
! The result is (/ /) (a zero-sized array).