no way for simple matrix lookup ?

[D. Goel]

Hi

[1] Suppose A is a nxn matrix.  And b and are vectors.  How do i
return elements of A specified by b and c? 

i.e. Want to return a vector D, such that 
D(i) = A(b(i), c(i)) 

Is the only way to do that a for loop?  Is that inefficient? 

This "simple lookup" seems too fundamental that there should be a way
to do it.  Am I missing something?  Else, should this be a feature
request?

[2] if (1) above is not possible, is it possible if b = c ?

[3] More generally, the problem i am struggling with is:

 A is a nxmxl matrix.  b and c are vectors. 
 I am looking for a vector D, such that D(i,:)= A(b(i), :, c(i)). 

Any way to do that?

[4] A simple generalization of (1) to 3 D's possible?

 D(i)=A(b(i), c(i), d(i)) ?


[5] BTW, i might be able to do (2) using the diag function, but is
there a way to use diag for 3 Dimensions?  or use diag such that it
acts only on 2 of the indices?  So one can implement (3), which is my
actual problem?


[6] Is there a way to transpose the 2nd and 3rd indices of a 3D
vector?  transpose() complains that it is implemented only for
2D's... I am trying 2.1.57.



Thanks, please CC if you can..
DG                                 http://gnufans.net/
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