<html lang="en"> <head> <title>How does Octave solve linear systems? - Frequently asked questions about Octave (with answers)</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html"> <meta name="description" content="Frequently asked questions about Octave (with answers)"> <meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.13"> <link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top"> <link rel="up" href="Using-Octave.html#Using-Octave" title="Using Octave"> <link rel="prev" href="How-do-I-set-the-number-of-displayed-decimals_003f.html#How-do-I-set-the-number-of-displayed-decimals_003f" title="How do I set the number of displayed decimals?"> <link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"> <style type="text/css"><!-- pre.display { font-family:inherit } pre.format { font-family:inherit } pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller } pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller } span.sc { font-variant:small-caps } span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; } span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; } --></style> </head> <body> <div class="node"> <a name="How-does-Octave-solve-linear-systems%3f"></a> <a name="How-does-Octave-solve-linear-systems_003f"></a> <p> Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="How-do-I-set-the-number-of-displayed-decimals_003f.html#How-do-I-set-the-number-of-displayed-decimals_003f">How do I set the number of displayed decimals?</a>, Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Using-Octave.html#Using-Octave">Using Octave</a> <hr> </div> <h3 class="section">10.2 How does Octave solve linear systems?</h3> <p><a name="index-backslash-operator-35"></a> In addition to consulting Octave's source for the precise details, the Octave manual contains a complete high-level description of the algorithm that Octave uses to decide how to solve a particular linear system, e.g. how the backslash operator <code>A\x</code> will be interpreted. Sections “Techniques Used for Linear Algebra” and “Linear Algebra on Sparse Matrices” from the manual describe this procedure. </body></html>