In linear algebra, the Crout matrix decomposition is an LU decomposition which decomposes a matrix into a lower triangular matrix (L), an upper triangular matrix (U) and, although not always needed, a permutation matrix (P). It was developed by Prescott Durand Crout. The Crout matrix decomposition algorithm differs slightly from the Doolittle method. Doolittle's method returns a unit lower triangular matrix and an upper triangular matrix, while the Crout method returns a lower triangular matrix and a unit upper triangular matrix. So, if a matrix decomposition of a matrix A is such that: A = LDU