Some remarkable difference between matrix and list in Scilab

When comparing Scilab with C++, we will find that matrices in Scilab are equivalent to arrays in C++ and lists in Scilab are equivalent to structures in C++. Lists (data structures) are preferable when creating a database or when a set of data has no specified layout. The following points are some differences between matrices and lists in Scilab:

§  Matrix elements must be all of the same type (.i.e. matrix of strings, sparse matrix, polynomial matrix, real matrix, ... ) , while the list can store different types of elements like numbers, strings, matrices, sparse matrices, polynomial, functions, ... and for this reason lists (typed lists) are implemented in graphic window properties, axes properties, entity properties, and ... etc. in Scilab as it contains mixed types of data, like the following:

Figure property	Type	Type No.
Children	Matrix of graphic handles	9
Figure position	Real row vector of size  1 x 2	1
Figure size	Real row vector of size  1 x 2	1
Axes size	Real row vector of size  1 x 2	1
Auto resize	Matrix of character strings	10
View port	Real row vector of size  1 x 2	1
Figure name	Matrix of character strings	10
Figure ID	Real matrix	1
Info message	Matrix of character strings	10
Color map	Matrix of size M x 3, where M is number of colors and 3 is the RGB channels	1
Pixel map	Matrix of character strings	10
Pixel drawing mode	Matrix of character strings	10
. . .	. . .	. . .

For example, you can use lists to create a data base for employees and this data base contains the following data:

□     Employee name (string)

□     Employee age (real matrix)

□     Employee salary (real matrix)

□     Employee is married or not (Boolean)

□     Employee notes (empty in case there are no notes)

§  Number of elements in each row in a matrix is the same, while in lists each row (entry) can has different number of elements

§  Matrix can't store an empty row while list can do