Convert array into column vector - by row rather than column

Consider the matrix a

 a = [1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9]

I wish to obtain an output b:

 b = [1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9]

a(:) is unsuitable in this case as the output becomes:

 a(:) = [1; 4; 7; 2; 5; 8; 3; 6; 9]

Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance!

Sam

Answer 1

[Samuel Thompson]

Managed to achieve this by taking the transpose of matrix a first, and then performing the same operation.

 b = a';
 b(:)