Matrix Operations in kdb+/q

In q, a matrix (an array of m x n numbers) is represented as a list of lists. For example, here is a matrix with 2 rows and 3 columns:

q)A:(1 2 3;4 5 6)
q)A
1 2 3
4 5 6

Matrix Addition and Subtraction
If A and B are matrices of the same size, then they can be added and subtracted. To find the entries of A + B, you simply add the corresponding entries of A and B. To find A - B, subtract corresponding entries. If A and B have different sizes, you will get a 'length error.

q)A:(1 2;3 4)
q)B:(5 6;7 8)
q)A+B
6  8
10 12
q)B-A
4 4
4 4
q)C:(1 1 1;2 2 2)
q)A+C
'length
  [0]  A+C
        ^

Scalar Multiplication
If A is a matrix and k is a scalar, then the matrix kA is obtained by multiplying each entry of A by k.

q)A:(1 2;3 4)
q)k:2
q)k*A
2 4
6 8

Matrix Multiplication
First, in order to multiply two matrices A and B, the number of columns of A must match the number of rows of B. If A is m x n and B is n x p, then the size of the product matrix AB will be m x p. In order to calculate AB, you have to take the dot product (multiply corresponding numbers and then add them up) of each row vector in A and the corresponding column vector in B. This can be done in q using the mmu (or $) operator.

q)A:(1 2f;3 4f)
q)B:(5 6f;7 8f)
q)A
1 2
3 4
q)B
5 6
7 8
q)A mmu B
19 22
43 50

Identity Matrix
This is a square matrix with 1s on the diagonal and 0s everywhere else.

q)I:{`float${x=/:x}til x}
q)I 3
1 0 0
0 1 0
0 0 1

Matrix Inverse
The inverse of A is A^-1 if AA^-1=A^-1A=I, where I is the identity matrix. Use the inv function to find the inverse of a matrix.

q)A:(1 2f;3 4f)
q)inv A
-2  1
1.5 -0.5
q)A mmu inv A
1 1.110223e-016
0 1

Matrix Tranpose
The tranpose A^T of a matrix A is a flipped version of the original matrix which is obtained by changing its rows into columns (or equivalently, its columns into rows). This can be done by using the flip operation in q.

q)A:(1 2 3;4 5 6)
q)flip A
1 4
2 5
3 6

Using "flock" to Prevent Multiple Instances of a Script from Running

In a previous post, I wrote about how you can use the lockfile command to ensure that only one instance of a script is running at a time. An alternative to lockfile is the flock command, which is used as follows:

flock /path/to/mylockfile cmd

By default, if the lock cannot be immediately acquired, flock will wait indefinitely until it becomes available. However, you can use the --nonblock (or -n) flag if you want flock to fail (with an exit code of 1) rather than wait if the lock cannot be immediately acquired. You can also specify how long flock should wait by passing in a --timeout in seconds.

A convenient form of flock often used within shell scripts is to use a file descriptor, as follows:

(
flock -n 9 || exit 1
# ... commands executed under lock ...
) 9>/path/to/mylockfile

If you want to prevent multiple instances of a shell script from running simultaneously, add the following boilerplate at the top of your script, which will cause the script to lock itself automatically on first run:

[ "${FLOCKER}" != "$0" ] && exec env FLOCKER="$0" flock -en "$0" "$0" "$@" || :

Related posts:
Using "lockfile" to Prevent Multiple Instances of a Script from Running
Retrying Commands in Shell Scripts
Executing a Shell Command with a Timeout