How can I make the output of a function always a column vector, regardless of if the input is a column or row vector?

I'm having trouble with a problem where I need the output to be a column vector, but inputs are sometimes provided as row vectors and other times as column vectors (so sometimes transposing it helps, but sometimes it flips a column vector to a row vector, making it wrong.) Thanks!

[per isakson]

>> row = 1:12; % test data
>> row
row =
     1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9    10    11    12
>> reshape( row, [],1 )
ans =
     1
     2
     3
     4
     5
     6
     7
     8
     9
    10
    11
    12
>>

or

>> row(:)
ans =
     1
     2
     3
     4
     5
     6
     7
     8
     9
    10
    11
    12

I think reshape is more readable.

Test this with a column vector

Answer 1

[possibility]

%Check if the output is a column vector 
if size(output,2)>1
output=output(:)
end

Hope the problem is understood correctly.

Best

Answer 2

[Robert]

You can use isrow for this:

if isrow(output)
    output = output';
end