Example

> det([2,3; 4,5])
       -2
> b = [2,4;-4,-8]
 b =
        2          4  
       -4         -8  
> det(b)
rlab: b, matrix is singular
> c = rand(3,3)
 c =
        1      0.333      0.665  
    0.975     0.0369     0.0847  
    0.647      0.162      0.204  
> c = rand(4,4)
 c =
    0.167      0.112       0.95      0.915  
    0.655      0.299     0.0918      0.441  
    0.129      0.265      0.902     0.0735  
     0.91        0.7       0.96      0.924  
> det(c)
   0.0765
> d = rand(3,3)+rand(3,3)*(0+1j)
 d =
 matrix columns 1 thru 3
          0.414 + 0.278i           0.29 + 0.737i          0.791 + 0.363i
          0.233 + 0.789i          0.205 + 0.248i          0.269 + 0.369i
          0.555 + 0.692i           0.561 + 0.45i          0.334 + 0.505i

> det(d)
   -0.152 + 0.242i