[with patch, positive referee] add setting of rows or columns to a matrix

[was]

On 7/26/07, David Joyner <wdjoyner@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 7/26/07, mak <mak@math.uvic.ca> wrote:
> > 1.  How do I change the entire row or column of a matrix at once?  In
> > pari, I could do e.g. a=[1,2,3;4,5,6], and then put a[1,]=[0,0,0],
> > which would give a=[0,0,0;4,5,6].  What's the sage equivalent?

There is no SAGE equivalent yet.  David's example might be helpful
below though.  The best you could in SAGE is set each entry
one at a time right now.  I should add something.  

def set_row(A, r, v):
    for i in range(A.ncols()):
         A[r, i] = v[i]

I'm not sure how we forgot to ever do this. 

[rlm]

merged in 2.9.1 rc0