Sparsity of a matrix
Definition
Suppose are positive integers and is a matrix. The sparsity or sparseness of is defined as the fraction of entries of that have value 0. Explicitly, it is the ratio:
The sparsity of the matrix can also be defined as 1 minus its density. Formulas about the relation with matrix operations are more neatly expressed in terms of density than sparsity.
See also
- Sparse matrix family, a family of matrices whose sparsity approaches 1 in the limit.