How to select specific elements in a matrix?

Say I have a 10x10 matrix

x =

    17    24     1     8    15
    23     5     7    14    16
     4     6    13    20    22
    10    12    19    21     3
    11    18    25     2     9

And I want to select a certain element from each row in the matrix for example: I want elements from row 1 column 3, row 2 column 4, row 4 column 3, row 5 column 3 and turn those element into 0. I know I can do something like:

x(1,3)=0;
x(2,4)=0;

etc. But that is time-consuming. Is there a code that I can just write all that in one line? I thought it would be something like:

x=([1 2 3 4], [3 4 3 3])=0;

Answer 1

[the cyclist]

Yes, but you have to use "linear indices":

x = [
    17    24     1     8    15
    23     5     7    14    16
     4     6    13    20    22
    10    12    19    21     3
    11    18    25     2     9]

linearIndices = sub2ind(size(x),[1 2 3 4], [3 4 3 3])

x(linearIndices) = 0

[Stephen23]

Covered quite well in the documentation:

http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/math/matrix-indexing.html

http://www.mathworks.com/company/newsletters/articles/matrix-indexing-in-matlab.html

[Tin Nguyen]

Thank you so much! That worked perfectly :) !

[the cyclist]

The best form of thanks is accepting a solution that worked for you. (This rewards the person who helped you, and also may help future people with a similar question.)