How can i extract the value of an element of a sparse double?

if i have a sparse duble:

M = zeros(3);
M = sparse(M);
M(3,3) = 2;

and i want to get only the value of M(3,3) = 2, how do i do that?

if i type:

M(3,3)

i get:

ans =

   (1,1)        2

but i want to somheow get:

ans =

     2

converting to full matrix is not an option since the actual matrix is 50000 x 50000. thank you

Answer 1

[Bruno Luong]

full(M(3,3))

Answer 2

[Rik]

You can convert the result to a full matrix. Indexing only extracts part of the array, but doesn't influence the sparse property.

[Odin Iversen]

so like this:

full(M(3,3))

this only converts that one element to full and not the whole M-matrix in the process?

[Rik]

Exactly, which is probably why you accepted Bruno's answer.

Answer 3

[Ameer Hamza]

Or maybe this

M(3,3)+0