--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2011-02-28  Rik  <octave@nomad.inbox5.com>
+
+	* NEWS: Mention new functions isrow, iscolumn.
+
 2011-02-23  Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso  <jordigh@gmail.com>
 
 	* .hgignore: Cleanup and more files to be ignore that get added

--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 Summary of important user-visible changes for version 3.6:
 ---------------------------------------------------------
 
+ ** The PCRE library is now required to build Octave.
+
+ ** New functions added.
+    iscolumn
+    issrow
+ 
  ** Deprecated functions.
 
     The following functions were deprecated in Octave 3.2 and have been
@@ -18,8 +24,6 @@
       spchol              splchol      unmark_command
       spchol2inv          split        unmark_rawcommand
 
-  ** The PCRE library is now required to build Octave.
-
 Summary of important user-visible changes for version 3.4:
 ---------------------------------------------------------
 

--- a/doc/ChangeLog
+++ b/doc/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2010-02-28  Rik  <octave@nomad.inbox5.com>
+
+	* interpreter/numbers.txi: Add isrow, iscolumn functions to manual.
+
 2011-02-25  Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso  <jordigh@gmail.com>
 
 	* faq/OctaveFAQ.texi: Uniformise all mentions of Matlab to be

--- a/doc/interpreter/numbers.txi
+++ b/doc/interpreter/numbers.txi
@@ -819,6 +819,10 @@
 
 @DOCSTRING(isvector)
 
+@DOCSTRING(isrow)
+
+@DOCSTRING(iscolumn)
+
 @DOCSTRING(isscalar)
 
 @DOCSTRING(issquare)

--- a/scripts/ChangeLog
+++ b/scripts/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2010-02-28  Rik  <octave@nomad.inbox5.com>
+
+	* general/iscolumn.m, general/isrow.m: Add 2 new utility functions
+	to check for row or column vector.
+
 2010-02-28  Rik  <octave@nomad.inbox5.com>
 
 	* sparse/treeplot.m: Use 'o' plot style as default for nodes

new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/general/iscolumn.m
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+## Copyright (C) 2011 John W. Eaton
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at
+## your option) any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, see
+## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {} iscolumn (@var{x})
+## Return true if @var{x} is a column vector.
+## @seealso{isrow, isscalar, isvector, ismatrix}
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: Rik Wehbring
+
+function retval = iscolumn (x)
+
+  retval = false;
+
+  if (nargin != 1)
+    print_usage ();
+  endif
+
+  sz = size (x);
+  retval = (ndims (x) == 2 && (sz(2) == 1));
+
+endfunction
+
+%!assert(iscolumn ([1, 2, 3]), false);
+%!assert(iscolumn ([1; 2; 3]));
+%!assert(iscolumn (1));
+%!assert(iscolumn ([]), false);
+%!assert(iscolumn ([1, 2; 3, 4]), false);
+
+%!test
+%! warning ("off", "Octave:str-to-num");
+%! assert((iscolumn ("t")));
+%!test
+%! warning ("off", "Octave:str-to-num");
+%! assert(!(iscolumn ("test")));
+
+%!assert(!(iscolumn (["test"; "ing"])));
+
+%!test
+%! s.a = 1;
+%! assert((iscolumn (s)));
+
+%% Test input validation
+%!error iscolumn ();
+%!error iscolumn ([1, 2], 2);
+

new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/general/isrow.m
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+## Copyright (C) 2011 John W. Eaton
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at
+## your option) any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, see
+## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {} isrow (@var{x})
+## Return true if @var{x} is a row vector.
+## @seealso{iscolumn, isscalar, isvector, ismatrix}
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: Rik Wehbring
+
+function retval = isrow (x)
+
+  retval = false;
+
+  if (nargin != 1)
+    print_usage ();
+  endif
+
+  sz = size (x);
+  retval = (ndims (x) == 2 && (sz(1) == 1));
+
+endfunction
+
+%!assert(isrow ([1, 2, 3]));
+%!assert(isrow ([1; 2; 3]), false);
+%!assert(isrow (1));
+%!assert(isrow ([]), false);
+%!assert(isrow ([1, 2; 3, 4]), false);
+
+%!test
+%! warning ("off", "Octave:str-to-num");
+%! assert((isrow ("t")));
+%!test
+%! warning ("off", "Octave:str-to-num");
+%! assert((isrow ("test")));
+
+%!assert(!(isrow (["test"; "ing"])));
+
+%!test
+%! s.a = 1;
+%! assert((isrow (s)));
+
+%% Test input validation
+%!error isrow ();
+%!error isrow ([1, 2], 2);
+

--- a/scripts/general/module.mk
+++ b/scripts/general/module.mk
@@ -44,9 +44,11 @@
   general/interpft.m \
   general/is_duplicate_entry.m \
   general/isa.m \
+  general/iscolumn.m \
   general/isdir.m \
   general/isequal.m \
   general/isequalwithequalnans.m \
+  general/isrow.m \
   general/isscalar.m \
   general/issquare.m \
   general/isvector.m \