How to square each element of a vector

Hello everybody I have a very simple problem, but I don't know how to solve it.

I want to create a row vector from a certain range between two limits. So, given the limits 'a' and 'b', I do: x = [a:0.1:b] %I obtain a vector with equally spaced values between 'a' and 'b', with a 0.10 step.

The problem is that now, I need to elevate each value of 'x' to square, and so, obtain a new vector, let's say 'y', that will contain the values of 'x' squared. How do I do this???

Example: x = [0:1:4] ans = 0 1 2 3 4

I need y to be: 0 1 4 9 16

Thanks everyone!

[Mohammed Alkhatib]

y = x.^2;

Answer 1

[Dr. Seis]

y = x.^2;

Using the "." will effectively perform element-by-element mathematical operations. So if you had 2 MxM matrices, say A and B, then:

C = A*B;

Would yield normal matrix multiplication, while:

C = A.*B;

Would yield element-by-element multiplication of both matrices.

See example below:

>> A = eye(2)

A =

     1     0
     0     1

>> B = rand(2)

B =

    0.9594    0.1745
    0.9917    0.9862

>> A*B

ans =

    0.9594    0.1745
    0.9917    0.9862

>> A.*B

ans =

    0.9594         0
         0    0.9862

Answer 2

[the cyclist]

y = x.^2;

If you don't need the intermediate variable x, then you could simply have done

 y = (a:0.1:b).^2;

Answer 3

[Jabir Mumtaz]

y=x.^2;

Answer 4

[Saurabh Palve]

x=[2 5 1 6]^2

[Kyle Delaney]

You forgot the dot

[John D'Errico]

For any newbies who might see this question, of the many answers I see here, all the others are correct, but this answer by @Saurabh Palve is not correct in MATLAB. Without a dot in that operator, that line will fail.

Answer 5

[MUHAMMAD FAIZAN ALI]

>> A=[4 3;1 2]

A =

4 3

1 2

>> A.^2

ans =

16 9

1 4