Out of memory error with zeros()

I'm having a strange problem where when I run

nrg=zeros(120001);

I'm getting an out of memory error, but if I have an array, say t, that is the same length and I do

nrg=t*0;

it has no trouble creating the array.

Thoughts?

[Jon]

It's MATLAB 2011a for 64-bit Windows 7, btw.

Answer 1

[the cyclist]

That syntax will try to create a 120001 X 120001 array. That's pretty big. :-)

Guessing you wanted

>> nrg = zeros(120001,1)

This mistake was the highest-voted one in the thread "Dumb mistakes we make with MATLAB": http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/1759-dumb-mistakes-we-make-with-matlab

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

zeros(120001) is the same then zeros(120001,120001)

Answer 2

[Jon]

Oh my, I didn't realize it did a square by default. Thank you gentlemen!