That worked perfectly, thanks acer. I have a related question, that i'm not sure there will be a nice answer to: the file i posted before was called p0000000. i have a series of files who's names are every variation of 'p' followed by a 7 digit number made up of 0, 1, 2 (for example: Download 4399_p1220120.xls
View file details and Download 4399_p0002011.xls
View file details ). here's my question: is there a way to import all these as matrices using a loop along the lines of: for a from 0 to 2 do for b from 0 to 2 do for c from 0 to 2 do for d from 0 to 2 do for e from 0 to 2 do for f from 0 to 2 do for g from 0 to 2 do MMabcdefg := ImportMatrix("4399_pabcdefg.xls",datatype=anything); end do end do end do end do end do end do end do the obvious problem is that the file name is a string. is there some way to get around that hitch? cheers J

That worked perfectly, thanks acer. I have a related question, that i'm not sure there will be a nice answer to: the file i posted before was called p0000000. i have a series of files who's names are every variation of 'p' followed by a 7 digit number made up of 0, 1, 2 (for example: Download 4399_p1220120.xls
View file details and Download 4399_p0002011.xls
View file details ). here's my question: is there a way to import all these as matrices using a loop along the lines of: for a from 0 to 2 do for b from 0 to 2 do for c from 0 to 2 do for d from 0 to 2 do for e from 0 to 2 do for f from 0 to 2 do for g from 0 to 2 do MMabcdefg := ImportMatrix("4399_pabcdefg.xls",datatype=anything); end do end do end do end do end do end do end do the obvious problem is that the file name is a string. is there some way to get around that hitch? cheers J

thanks for the help, though i have one more problem: I am now attempting to use the second and third eigenvectors as coordinates for a graph (so the the first value of the 2nd eigenvector would be the x coordinate and the 1st value of the 3rd eigenvector would be the y coordinate for the first point). i found an earlier post that recommends this approach: View 4399_complex prob.mw on MapleNet or Download 4399_complex prob.mw
View file details clearly this is effective only for non-complex values. because i will have to use evalf when finding the eigen functions for larger matrices (which has been a great solution thus far) i will end up with complex values. JacquesC's idea would work, but my matrix is not symmetric. so this is where I am stuck (the eigen vectors i'm interested in are stored in vects): View 4399_5X5(vects).mw on MapleNet or Download 4399_5X5(vects).mw
View file details is there some way to dodge the complex values? (i suspect there is a simple answer here that is evading this maple newbie). on a more trivial note, is there a way, with pointplot, to label each point (1, 2 ,3 . . .)? cheers, J

thanks for the help, though i have one more problem: I am now attempting to use the second and third eigenvectors as coordinates for a graph (so the the first value of the 2nd eigenvector would be the x coordinate and the 1st value of the 3rd eigenvector would be the y coordinate for the first point). i found an earlier post that recommends this approach: View 4399_complex prob.mw on MapleNet or Download 4399_complex prob.mw
View file details clearly this is effective only for non-complex values. because i will have to use evalf when finding the eigen functions for larger matrices (which has been a great solution thus far) i will end up with complex values. JacquesC's idea would work, but my matrix is not symmetric. so this is where I am stuck (the eigen vectors i'm interested in are stored in vects): View 4399_5X5(vects).mw on MapleNet or Download 4399_5X5(vects).mw
View file details is there some way to dodge the complex values? (i suspect there is a simple answer here that is evading this maple newbie). on a more trivial note, is there a way, with pointplot, to label each point (1, 2 ,3 . . .)? cheers, J

thanks for the advice. evalf worked at a great speed, but it has left me with a new problem: the eigen values come out the same (though in a different order), however the eigenvectors are different (i tested with a smaller (5x5) matrix so i could run it both ways): View 4399_5X5(L).mw on MapleNet or Download 4399_5X5(L).mw
View file details am i missing something obvious here? cheers, jake

thanks for the advice. evalf worked at a great speed, but it has left me with a new problem: the eigen values come out the same (though in a different order), however the eigenvectors are different (i tested with a smaller (5x5) matrix so i could run it both ways): View 4399_5X5(L).mw on MapleNet or Download 4399_5X5(L).mw
View file details am i missing something obvious here? cheers, jake

I did not explicitly define the data type, but it is numeric floating point. Here is an example (please excuse the build up before the matrix (L), I'm new with maple and couldn't figure out a better way to share a matrix of this size): View 4399_50X50 (L).mw on MapleNet or Download 4399_50X50 (L).mw
View file details cheers, jake

I did not explicitly define the data type, but it is numeric floating point. Here is an example (please excuse the build up before the matrix (L), I'm new with maple and couldn't figure out a better way to share a matrix of this size): View 4399_50X50 (L).mw on MapleNet or Download 4399_50X50 (L).mw
View file details cheers, jake