#### Previous topic

scipy.linalg.cholesky_banded

#### Next topic

scipy.linalg.cho_solve

# scipy.linalg.cho_factor

`scipy.linalg.``cho_factor`(a, lower=False, overwrite_a=False, check_finite=True)

  Compute the Cholesky decomposition of a matrix, to use in cho_solve

  Returns a matrix containing the Cholesky decomposition, `A = L L*` or `A = U* U` of a Hermitian positive-definite matrix a. The return value can be directly used as the first parameter to cho_solve.

  Warning

  The returned matrix also contains random data in the entries not used by the Cholesky decomposition. If you need to zero these entries, use the function `cholesky` instead.

  Parameters: | a : (M, M) array_like Matrix to be decomposed lower : bool, optional Whether to compute the upper or lower triangular Cholesky factorization (Default: upper-triangular) overwrite_a : bool, optional Whether to overwrite data in a (may improve performance) check_finite : bool, optional Whether to check that the input matrix contains only finite numbers. Disabling may give a performance gain, but may result in problems (crashes, non-termination) if the inputs do contain infinities or NaNs.
  Returns: | c : (M, M) ndarray Matrix whose upper or lower triangle contains the Cholesky factor of a. Other parts of the matrix contain random data. lower : bool Flag indicating whether the factor is in the lower or upper triangle
  Raises: | LinAlgError Raised if decomposition fails.

  See also

  `cho_solve`
    Solve a linear set equations using the Cholesky factorization of a matrix.