How to Create a Matrix from Vectors in R (With Examples)

You can use one of the following two methods to quickly create a matrix from vectors in R:

Method 1: Use cbind() to bind vectors into matrix by columns

my_matrix <- cbind(vector1, vector2, vector3)

Method 2: Use rbind() to bind vectors into matrix by rows

my_matrix <- rbind(vector1, vector2, vector3)

The following examples show how to use each method in practice.

Method 1: Use cbind() to Bind Vectors into Matrix by Columns

The following code shows how to use cbind() to bind together three vectors into a matrix by columns:

#define vectors
vector1 <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
vector2 <- c(2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20)
vector3 <- c(3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30)

#column-bind vectors together into matrix
my_matrix <- cbind(vector1, vector2, vector3)

#view resulting matrix
my_matrix

      vector1 vector2 vector3
 [1,]       1       2       3
 [2,]       2       4       6
 [3,]       3       6       9
 [4,]       4       8      12
 [5,]       5      10      15
 [6,]       6      12      18
 [7,]       7      14      21
 [8,]       8      16      24
 [9,]       9      18      27
[10,]      10      20      30

#view dimensions of matrix
dim(my_matrix)

[1] 10  3

We can see that the result is a matrix with 10 rows and 3 columns, with each of the three original vectors representing a unique column.

Method 2: Use rbind() to Bind Vectors into Matrix by Rows

The following code shows how to use rbind() to bind together three vectors into a matrix by columns:

#define vectors
vector1 <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
vector2 <- c(2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20)
vector3 <- c(3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30)

#row-bind vectors together into matrix
my_matrix <- rbind(vector1, vector2, vector3)

#view resulting matrix
my_matrix

        [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6] [,7] [,8] [,9] [,10]
vector1    1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10
vector2    2    4    6    8   10   12   14   16   18    20
vector3    3    6    9   12   15   18   21   24   27    30

#view dimensions of matrix
dim(my_matrix)

[1]  3 10

We can see that the result is a matrix with 3 rows and 10 columns, with each of the three original vectors representing a unique row.

Note: In these examples, we chose to bind together three vectors into a matrix, but we can use this exact syntax to bind together any number of vectors we’d like into a matrix.