Finding the determinant of a matrix using NumPy

Overview:

The NumPy function det() from the linalg module finds the determinant of a given matrix using the LU decomposition or the LU factorization method.
Using LU decomposition the determinant of a matrix can be found by factoring the matrix A into a lower triangular matrix and upper triangular matrix and taking the product of the diagonal elements of both the matrices.
The determinant is only defined for square matrices which are singular. i.e.,square matrices that have an inverse.

# Example Python program that finds the determinant
# of a square matrix using det() function of the
# linalg module
import numpy

# Create a square matrix of order 3x3
elems = numpy.arange(-4, 5)
matrix = elems.reshape(3, 3)

# Make the matrix non-singular
# Avoid getting a determinant value of zero
matrix[1][1] = 1

determinant = numpy.linalg.det(matrix)

print("Matrix:")
print(matrix)

print("Determinant of the matrix:")
print(determinant)

Matrix:
[[-4 -3 -2]
[-1 1 1]
[ 2 3 4]]
Determinant of the matrix:
-12.0