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Square or round brackets enclosing a grid of numbers, marking a matrix.
Also known as: Matrix notation, Array brackets, Matrix delimiters
A matrix is written as a rectangular grid of entries enclosed in brackets. Square brackets and round brackets are equally correct and the choice is a house style rather than a difference in meaning. What is not a style choice is the use of straight vertical bars: bars around the same grid denote the determinant, a single number derived from the matrix, and swapping the delimiters changes what has been written from an array into a scalar.
Encloses a rectangular grid of entries to mark it as a matrix. Square and round brackets are interchangeable and the choice belongs to a publisher or a textbook rather than to the mathematics.
Contexts: Mathematics
Is not interchangeable with straight vertical bars. Bars around the same grid denote the determinant — a single number derived from a square matrix — so changing the delimiter changes an array into a scalar.
Contexts: Mathematics
Is accompanied by a size convention read rows first: an m by n matrix has m rows and n columns, and an entry written with two subscripts gives its row before its column.
Contexts: Mathematics
A rectangular grid of numbers or letters flanked on both sides by tall square-cornered brackets or by tall curved brackets stretching the full height of the grid.
Brackets mark an array; straight bars mark the single number derived from it.