Language Reference

Index Creation Operator:   :

creates an index vector

value1:value2

The index creation operator (:) creates a row vector with a first element that is value1. The second element is value1+1, and so on, as long as the elements are less than or equal to value2. For example, the following statement produces the vector , as shown:

  
    I=7:10;
 

  
               I             1 row       4 cols    (numeric) 
  
                          7         8         9        10
 

If value1 is greater than value2, a reverse-order index is created. For example, the following statement produces the vector , as shown:

  
    r=10:6;
 

  
               R             1 row       5 cols    (numeric) 
  
               10          9         8         7        6
 

The index creation operator also works on character arguments with a numeric suffix. For example, consider the following statement:

  
    varlist='var1':'var5';
 

This statement produces the following result:

  
          VARLIST    1 row       5 cols    (character, size 4) 
  
                     var1  var2  var3  var4  var5
 

Use the DO function if you want an increment other than 1 or -1.