What is observation in correlation matrix?

I would like to use "corrcoef" command. In matlab help it is written the input of "corrcoef" command is a matrix which its rows are observations and columns are variables. Please let me know what the observations are.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

[Wayne King]

"observations" here just means the values of the variables. Assume that you collect weight and height data on 5 people. Put the weight data in the first column and put the height data in the second column. You have a 5x2 matrix, each row is a pair of "observations" -- the (weight,height) pair for one person.