How can I do one-hot encoding in MATLAB?

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I would like to perform one-hot encoding on the vector [1 7 10 9 8 6]' with 10 classes (numbers 1 to 10). The resulting 6x10 matrix should have a 1x10 vector in place of each number, with "1" at the position corresponding to the number and "0" at all other positions.

Accepted Answer

MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 13 Sep 2024
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 13 Sep 2024
This can be done by using a logical operator '==' as follows:
>> vec = [1 7 10 9 8 6]'; % Create the vector>> A = (vec==1:10) % Find the column that corresponds to each vector entry
A = 6×10 logical array 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
You can learn more about the operator here:

More Answers (1)

Jon Cherrie
Jon Cherrie on 13 Feb 2026 at 10:04
The function onhotencode will do this for you, e.g.,
x = [1 7 10 9 8 6]' ;
classes = 1:10;
y = onehotencode(x,2,"double",ClassNames=classes)
You can use onehotdecode for the reverse operation, which will also work on probability vectors, not just vectors of 1s and 0s

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