#### A.1.6.3 Using Sparse Matrices in Oct-Files

Most of the same operators and functions on sparse matrices that are available from the Octave command line are also available within oct-files. The basic means of extracting a sparse matrix from an `octave_value` and returning it as an `octave_value`, can be seen in the following example.

    octave_value_list retval;

    SparseMatrix sm = args(0).sparse_matrix_value ();
    SparseComplexMatrix scm =
        args(1).sparse_complex_matrix_value ();
    SparseBoolMatrix sbm = args(2).sparse_bool_matrix_value ();
    …
    retval(2) = sbm;
    retval(1) = scm;
    retval(0) = sm;

The conversion to an `octave_value` is handled by the sparse `octave_value` constructors, and so no special care is needed.