# Matlab's sparse matrix function
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/matlabs-sparse-matrix-function/36473
**Category:** General Usage
**Tags:** question, array, sparse
**Created:** [March 25, 2020, 1:29am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/matlabs-sparse-matrix-function/36473 "2020-03-25T01:29:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@chakravala](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/chakravala)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2020, 1:29am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/matlabs-sparse-matrix-function/36473/1 "2020-03-25T01:29:35Z")
In MATLAB it’s possible to use `sparse` like this:
```nohighlight
>> full(sparse([2 3 4 5; 1 2 3 4; 9 8 6 7],ones(3,1)*(1:4),1,9,9))
ans =
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
```
Does julia support a similar constructor for sparse matrices? I realize I can make a loop to achieve the same effect, but I’m wondering if there is a built-in function somwhere.
Specifically, note that the input are matrices and not vectors.
---
### Author:  [@tomerarnon](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tomerarnon)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2020, 4:46am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/matlabs-sparse-matrix-function/36473/2 "2020-03-25T04:46:01Z")
Does the above code in matlab not simply iterate through the first and second input values? I.e. does their dimensionality (vector/matrix) have any bearing on the output? If not, and turning them into vectors still yields what you want, you can simply `vec` the first two input arguments.
```julia
sparse(vec(I), vec(J), v, m, n)
```