--- /dev/null
+## Copyright (C) 2008 Michel D. Schmid <michaelschmid@users.sourceforge.net>
+##
+##
+## This program 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 2, or (at your option)
+## any later version.
+##
+## This program 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 this program; see the file COPYING. If not, see
+## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {} @var{retmatrix} = __copycoltopos1(@var{matrix},@var{colIndex})
+## @code{__copycoltopos1} copies the column of position colIndex to the first position.
+## Moves the rest of the matrix one position to the right.
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: mds
+
+function retmatrix = __copycoltopos1(matrix,colIndex)
+
+ ## check number of inputs
+ error(nargchk(2,2,nargin));
+
+ temp = matrix(:,colIndex);
+ matrix(:,colIndex) = []; # delete col
+ retmatrix = [temp matrix ];
+
+endfunction
+
+%!shared a, retmat
+%! disp("testing __copycoltopos1")
+%! a = [0 1 2 3 4; 5 6 7 8 9];
+%! retmat = __copycoltopos1(a,3);
+%!assert(retmat(1,1)==2);
+%!assert(retmat(2,1)==7);
+%! retmat = __copycoltopos1(a,5);
+%!assert(retmat(1,1)==4);
+%!assert(retmat(2,1)==9);