Cholesky decomposition, also known as Cholesky factorization, is a method of decomposing the positive-definite matrix. A positive-definite matrix is defined as a symmetric matrix for all possible vectors.
chol in R
The chol() is a built-in R function that computes the Cholesky factorization of a real symmetric positive-definite square matrix. It takes the R object as an argument and returns the Cholesky factorization.
Syntax
chol(x, pivot = FALSE, LINPACK = FALSE, tol = -1, …)
Parameters
pivot: Should pivoting be used?
LINPACK: It is logical. Should LINPACK be used (now ignored)?
tol: A numeric tolerance for use with pivot = TRUE.
…: They are other optional arguments.
Return Value
It returns the upper triangular factor of the Cholesky decomposition.
Example
To create a matrix in R, use the matrix() function. For example, let’s create a 2 x 2 matrix.
vt_1 <- c(-1, 3, 5, -7)
mtrx_1 <- matrix(vt_1, nrow = 2, ncol = 2)
print(mtrx_1)
Output
[,1] [,2]
[1,] -1 5
[2,] 3 -7
Let’s calculate the Cholesky factorization.
vt_1 <- c(12, 2, 2, 6)
mtrx_1 <- matrix(vt_1, nrow = 2, ncol = 2)
chol_m <- chol(mtrx_1)
print(chol_m)
Output
[,1] [,2]
[1,] 3.464102 0.5773503
[2,] 0.000000 2.3804761
Error in chol.default(x): the leading minor of order 2 is not positive definite
Let’s take an example where we will face the leading minor of order 2 is not a positive definite error.
vt_1 <- 1:4
mtrx_1 <- matrix(vt_1, nrow = 2, ncol = 2)
chol_m <- chol(mtrx_1)
print(chol_m)
Output
Error in chol.default(mtrx_1) :
the leading minor of order 2 is not positive definite
Calls: chol -> chol.default
Execution halted
Transposing the matrix
To transpose the matrix in R, use the t() method. For example, we can use the t() method to transpose the resulting upper triangular to get the lower triangular matrix.
vt_1 <- c(12, 2, 2, 6)
mtrx_1 <- matrix(vt_1, nrow = 2, ncol = 2)
chol_m <- chol(mtrx_1)
print(chol_m)
cat("After apply transpose", "\n")
l_t <- t(chol_m)
print(l_t)
Output
[,1] [,2]
[1,] 3.464102 0.5773503
[2,] 0.000000 2.3804761
After apply transpose
[,1] [,2]
[1,] 3.4641016 0.000000
[2,] 0.5773503 2.380476
The chol.default calls LAPACK routine dpotrf for non-pivoted Cholesky factorization and LAPACK routine dpstrf for pivoted Cholesky factorization.
Both LAPACK routines allow users to choose whether to work with upper triangular or lower triangular, but R disables the lower triangular option and only returns upper triangular.
That is it for chol() function in R.
See also

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