multidimensional matrix

[EDIT: 20110614 09:54 CDT - reformat - WDR]

I have a matrix dep(time,lat,lon), shape=[5 20000 30000]

The matrix is data from 5 years worth of hydrographic surveys and each survey contains data for depth at position lat and long. I already have the matrices for lat and lon as separate variables: lat [20000x1 double] and lon [30000x1 double]

The five layers of the dep matrix correspond to survey data each year from 2000 to 2004. What I would like to do is be able to 'extract' data from just one year so that I can do a contour(lat,lon,depth) plot for that year.

I am still learning the ropes with Matlab, any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

[scour_man]

I think I figured it out, I did

dep2000=dep(1,:,:);

dep2000=reshape(dep2000,20000,30000);

surf(lat,lon,dep2000)

is this right?

Answer 1

[Titus Edelhofer]

Hi,

using reshape works, but what you want to do, is to get rid of the first dimension (i.e., changing your 1x20000x30000 matrix to a 20000x30000 matrix). This is done using squeeze:

dep2000 = squeeze(dep(1,:,:));  % should be 20000x30000
surf(lat, lon, dep2000);

Titus

[scour_man]

great thanks!