 Solution

A QR factorization of a real $n\times n$ matrix isThus $Q$ is an orthogonal matrix and $R$ is an upper triangular matrix. It exists even if $A$ is singular; requiring positive diagonal entries of $R$ is a convenient uniqueness convention for nonsingular $A$, rather than part of the general existence statement. Over the complex numbers, replace orthogonal by unitary and transpose by conjugate transpose.