computing determinant of a matrix (nxn) recursively

Question

I\'m about to write some code that computes the determinant of a square matrix (nxn), using the Laplace algorithm (Meaning recursive algorithm) as written Wikipedia\'s Lapla

Answer 1

Here's the function in python 3.

Note: I used a one-dimensional list to house the matrix and the size array is the amount of rows or columns in the square array. It uses a recursive algorithm to find the determinant.

def solve(matrix,size):
    c = []
    d = 0
    print_matrix(matrix,size)
    if size == 0:
        for i in range(len(matrix)):
            d = d + matrix[i]
        return d
    elif len(matrix) == 4:
        c = (matrix[0] * matrix[3]) - (matrix[1] * matrix[2])
        print(c)
        return c
    else:
        for j in range(size):
            new_matrix = []
            for i in range(size*size):
                if i % size != j and i > = size:
                    new_matrix.append(matrix[i])

            c.append(solve(new_matrix,size-1) * matrix[j] * ((-1)**(j+2)))

        d = solve(c,0)
        return d