Page 22 - Basics of MATLAB and Beyond

>> [a a(a)]
ans =
1 2 3 1 4 7
4 5 6 2 5 8
7 8 9 3 6 9

The colon symbol can be used as a single index to a matrix. Continuing
the previous example, if you type
a(:)

matlab interprets this as the columns of the a-matrix successively
strung out in a single long column:

>> a(:)
ans =
1
4
7
2
5
8
3
6
9

3.5 End as a subscript

To access the last element of a matrix along a given dimension, use end
as a subscript (matlab version 5 or later). This allows you to go to the
final element without knowing in advance how big the matrix is. For
example:

>> q = 4:10
q =
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
>> q(end)
ans =
10
>> q(end-4:end)
ans =
6 7 8 9 10
>> q(end-2:end)
ans =
8 9 10

This technique works for two-dimensional matrices as well:

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