How to create an empty matrix in R?

How to create an empty matrix in R?

The default for matrix is to have 1 column. To explicitly have 0 columns, you need to write

matrix(, nrow = 15, ncol = 0)

A better way would be to preallocate the entire matrix and then fill it in

mat <- matrix(, nrow = 15, ncol = n.columns)
for(column in 1:n.columns){
  mat[, column] <- vector
}

If you dont know the number of columns ahead of time, add each column to a list and cbind at the end.

List <- list()
for(i in 1:n)
{
    normF <- #something
    List[[i]] <- normF
}
Matrix = do.call(cbind, List)

How to create an empty matrix in R?

Id be cautious as dismissing something as a bad idea because it is slow. If it is a part of the code that does not take much time to execute then the slowness is irrelevant. I just used the following code:

for (ic in 1:(dim(centroid)[2]))
{
cluster[[ic]]=matrix(,nrow=2,ncol=0)
}
# code to identify cluster=pindex[ip] to which to add the point
if(pdist[ip]>-1)
{
cluster[[pindex[ip]]]=cbind(cluster[[pindex[ip]]],points[,ip])
}

for a problem that ran in less than 1 second.