An Introduction to Matlab

Version 3.1

David F. Griffiths
formerly of

Department of Mathematics
The University of Dundee
Dundee DD1 4HN
Scotland, UK
With additional material by Ulf Carlsson
Department of Vehicle Engineering
KTH, Stockholm, Sweden
Thanks to Dr Anil Bharath, Imperial College,
Dr Chris Gordon, University of Christchurch,
Prof. Dr. Markus Kottmann, HSR Hochschule f
ur Technik, Switzerland
for their contributions to this revised version.
c
Copyright 1996
by David F. Griffiths. Amended October, 1997, August 2001, September 2005,
October 2012, March 2015.
This introduction may be distributed provided that it is not be altered in any way and that its
source is properly and completely specified.

Contents
1 MATLAB

2 Starting Up

3 Matlab as a Calculator

4 Numbers & Formats

5 Variables
5.1 Variable Names . . . . . . . . . .

3
3

6 Suppressing output

7 BuiltIn Functions
7.1 Trigonometric Functions . . . . .
7.2 Other Elementary Functions . . .
8 Vectors
8.1 The Colon Notation . . . .
8.2 Extracting Parts of Vectors
8.3 Column Vectors . . . . . . .
8.4 Transposing . . . . . . . . .

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9 Keeping a record
10 Script Files
11 Keyboard Accelerators
12 Arithmetic with Vectors
12.1 Inner Product (*) . . . . .
12.2 Elementwise Product (.*)
12.3 Elementwise Division (./)
12.4 Elementwise Powers (.^) .
13 Plotting Functions
13.1 PlottingTitles & Labels
13.2 Grids . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.3 Line Styles & Colours . .
13.4 Multiplots . . . . . . . .
13.5 Hold . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.6 Hard Copy . . . . . . . .
13.7 Subplot . . . . . . . . . .
13.8 Zooming . . . . . . . . . .
13.9 Figure Properties . . . . .
13.10Formatted text on Plots .
13.11Controlling Axes . . . . .
14 Elementwise Examples

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15 TwoDimensional Arrays
15.1 Size of a matrix . . . . . . . .
15.2 Transpose of a matrix . . . .
15.3 Special Matrices . . . . . . .
15.4 The Identity Matrix . . . . .
15.5 Diagonal Matrices . . . . . .
15.6 Building Matrices . . . . . . .
15.7 Tabulating Functions . . . . .
15.8 Extracting Parts of Matrices
15.9 Elementwise Products (.*) .
15.10Matrixvector products . . .
15.11MatrixMatrix Products . . .
15.12Sparse Matrices . . . . . . . .

4 16 Systems of Linear Equations

4
16.1 Overdetermined systems . .
4
17 Characters, Strings and Text
5
5 18 Loops
6
6 19 Timing
6
20 Logicals
20.1 While Loops . . . . . . . . .
7
20.2 if...then...else...end .
7
21 Further Builtin Functions
21.1 Rounding Numbers . . . . .
8
21.2 The sum Function . . . . . .
8
21.3 max & min . . . . . . . . . .
8
21.4 Random Numbers . . . . .
9
21.5 find for vectors . . . . . . .
10
21.6 find for matrices . . . . . .
11
22 Function mfiles
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12 23 Plotting Surfaces
12
12 24 Reading/Writing Data Files
24.1 Formatted Files . . . . . . .
13
24.2 Unformatted Files . . . . .
13
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25 Graphic User Interfaces
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14 26 Command Summary
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37

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42

MATLAB

Type quit at any time to exit from Matlab.

Extensive documentation is available, either via
Matlab is an interactive system for doing the command line by using the help topic
numerical computations.
command (see below) or via the internet. We
recommend starting with the command
A numerical analyst called Cleve Moler
wrote the first version of Matlab in the
demo
1970s. It has since evolved into a successful commercial software package.
(a link may also be provided on the top line
Matlab relieves you of a lot of the mun- of the command window). This brings up a
dane tasks associated with solving prob- separate window which gives access to a short
lems numerically. This allows you to spend video entitled Getting Started that describes
more time thinking, and encourages you the purpose of the various panes in the main
Matlab window.
to experiment.
Help is available from the command line prompt.
Matlab makes use of highly respected al- Type help help for help (which gives a brief
gorithms and hence you can be confident synopsis of the help system), help for a list of
about your results.
topics. The first few lines of this read
MatlabCode/matlab matlab/general
matlab/ops
matlab/lang
matlab/elmat
matlab/randfun
matlab/elfun
matlab/specfun
HELP topics:

Powerful operations can be performed using just one or two commands.

You can build up your own set of functions for a particular application.
Excellent graphics facilities are available,
and the pictures can be inserted into LATEX
and Word documents.

(No table of contents file)

General purpose commands.
Operators and special ...
Programming language ...
Elementary matrices and ...
Random matrices and ...
Elementary math functions.
Specialized math functions.

These notes provide only a brief glimpse of the (truncated lines are shown with . . . ). Then to
power and flexibility of the Matlab system. For obtain help on Elementary math functions,
a more comprehensive view we recommend the for instance, type
book
>> help elfun
Matlab Guide 2nd ed.
D.J. Higham & N.J. Higham
Clicking on a key word, for example sin will
SIAM Philadelphia, 2005, ISBN:
provide further information together with a link
0-89871-578-4.
to doc sin which provides the most extensive
documentation on a keyword along with examples of its use.
2 Starting Up
Another useful facility is to use the
Matlab can be used in a number of different
lookfor keyword
ways or modes; as an advanced calculator in the
calculator mode, in a high level programming command, which searches the help files for the
language mode and as a subroutine called from keyword. See Exercise 15.1 (page 22) for an
a C-program. More information on the first two example of its use.
of these modes is provided by these notes.
When used in calculator mode all Matlab commands are entered to the command line from
the keyboard at the command line prompt
indicated with >>.
2

Matlab as a Calculator

Command
>>format short
>>format short e
>>format long e
>>format short
>>format bank

The basic arithmetic operators are + - * / ^

and these are used in conjunction with brackets:
( ). The symbol ^ is used to get exponents
(powers): 2^4=16.
You should type in the commands shown at the
prompt: >>.

Example of Output
31.4162(4decimal places)
3.1416e+01
3.141592653589793e+01
31.4162(4decimal places)
31.42(2decimal places)

The command
>> 2 + 3/4*5
ans =
5.7500
>>

format compact

is also useful in that it suppresses blank lines in

the output thus allowing more information to
Is this calculation 2 + 3/(4*5) or 2 + (3/4)*5? be displayed.
Matlab works according to the priorities:

1. quantities in brackets,
2. powers 2 + 3^2 2 + 9 = 11,

Variables

>> 3-2^4
ans =
3. * /, working left to right (3*4/5=12/5),
-13
>> ans*5
4. + -, working left to right (3+4-5=7-5),
ans =
Thus, the earlier calculation was for 2 + (3/4)*5
-65
by priority 3.
The result of the first calculation is labelled
ans by Matlab and is used in the second cal4 Numbers & Formats
culation, where its value is changed.
We can use our own names to store numbers:
Matlab recognizes several different kinds of numbers
>> x = 3-2^4
x =
Type
Examples
-13
Integer
1362, 217897
>> y = x*5
Real
1.234, 10.76
y =

Complex 3.21 4.3i (i = 1)

-65
Inf
Infinity (result of dividing by 0)
so that x has the value 13 and y = 65. These
NaN
Not a Number, 0/0
can be used in subsequent calculations. These
are examples of assignment statements: valThe e notation is used for very large or very
ues are assigned to variables. Each variable
small numbers:
must be assigned a value before it may be used
3
-1.3412e+03 = 1.3412 10 = 1341.2
on the right of an assignment statement.
1
-1.3412e-01 = 1.3412 10 = 0.13412
All computations in MATLAB are done in double precision, which means about 15 significant 5.1 Variable Names
figures. How Matlab prints numbers is conLegal names consist of any combination of lettrolled by the format command. Type help
ters and digits, starting with a letter. These
format for full list.
are allowable:
Should you wish to switch back to the default
format then format will suffice.
NetCost, Left2Pay, x3, X3, z25c5
3

These are not allowable:

sin, cos, tan

and their arguments should be in radians.
Net-Cost, 2pay, %x, @sign
e.g. to work out the coordinates of a point on
a circle of radius 5 centred at the origin and
Use names that reflect the values they reprehaving an elevation 30o = /6 radians:
sent.
Special names: you should avoid using
>> x = 5*cos(pi/6), y = 5*sin(pi/6)
eps (which has the value 2.2204e-16= 252 . x =
The smallest number greater than 1 which can
4.3301
be represented in Matlab is 1 + eps.)
y =
pi = 3.14159... = .
2.5000
If you wish to do arithmetic with complex
num
bers,both i and j have the value 1 unless To work in degrees, use sind, cosd and tand.
The inverse trig functions are called asin, acos,
you change them
atan (as opposed to the usual arcsin or sin1
>> i,j, i=3
etc.). The result is in radians.
ans = 0 + 1.0000i
>> acos(x/5), asin(y/5)
ans = 0 + 1.0000i
ans = 0.5236
i
= 3
ans = 0.5236
See Section 8.4 for more on complex numbers. >> pi/6
ans = 0.5236

Suppressing output
7.2

Other Elementary Functions

One often does not want to see the result of intermediate calculationsterminate the assign- These include sqrt, exp, log, log10
ment statement or expression with semicolon >> x = 9;
>> sqrt(x),exp(x),log(sqrt(x)),log10(x^2+6)
>> x=-13; y = 5*x, z = x^2+y
ans =
y =
3
-65
ans =
z =
8.1031e+03
104
ans =
>>
1.0986
the value of x is hidden. Note that we can ans =
place several statements on one line, separated
1.9395
by commas or semicolons.
exp(x) denotes the exponential function exp(x) =
Exercise 6.1 In each case find the value of the ex and the inverse function is log:
expression in Matlab and explain precisely the
>> format long e, exp(log(9)), log(exp(9))
order in which the calculation was performed.
ans = 9.000000000000002e+00
i)
-2^3+9
ii)
2/3*3
ans = 9
iii) 3*2/3
iv) 3*4-5^2*2-3
>> format short
v)

(2/3^2*5)*(3-4^3)^2

7
7.1

vi)

3*(3*4-2*5^2-3)

and we see a tiny rounding error in the first

calculation. log10 gives logs to the base 10.
A more complete list of elementary functions is
given in Table 2 on page 42.

BuiltIn Functions
Trigonometric Functions

Those known to Matlab are

4

Vectors

>> w = [1 2 3], z = [8 9]
>> cd = [2*z,-w], sort(cd)
These come in two flavours and we shall first de- w =
scribe row vectors: they are lists of numbers
1
2
3
separated by either commas or spaces. The z =
number of entries is known as the length of
8
9
the vector and the entries are often referred to cd =
as elements or components of the vector.
16
18
-1
-2
-3
The entries must be enclosed in square brack- ans =
ets.
-3
-2
-1
16
18
>> v = [ 1 3, sqrt(5)]
v =
1.0000
3.0000
>> length(v)
ans =
3

Notice the last command sorted the elements

of cd into ascending order.
We can also change or look at the value of particular entries

2.2361

>> w(2) = -2, w(3)

w =
1
-2
3
ans =
3

Spaces can be vitally important:

>> v2 = [3+ 4 5]
v2 =
7
5
>> v3 = [3 +4 5]
v3 =
3
4
5

8.1

The Colon Notation

This is a shortcut for producing row vectors:

>> 1:4
We can do certain arithmetic operations with ans =
vectors of the same length, such as v and v3 in
1
the previous section.
>> 3:7
ans =
>> v + v3
3
ans =
>> 1:-1
4.0000
7.0000
7.2361
ans =
>> v4 = 3*v
[]
v4 =
3.0000
9.0000
6.7082
>> v5 = 2*v -3*v3
v5 =
-7.0000
-6.0000 -10.5279
>> v + v2
??? Error using ==> +
Matrix dimensions must agree.

More generally a : b : c produces a vector of

entries starting with the value a, incrementing
by the value b until it gets to c (it will not
produce a value beyond c). This is why 1:-1
produced the empty vector [].
>> 0.32:0.1:0.6
ans =
0.3200
0.4200
>> -1.4:-0.3:-2
ans =
-1.4000
-1.7000

i.e. the error is due to v and v2 having different

lengths.
A vector may be multiplied by a scalar (a number, see v4 above), or added/subtracted to another vector of the same length. The operations are carried out elementwise.
We can build row vectors from existing ones:

0.5200

-2.0000

8.2

Extracting Parts of Vectors

and does not distinguish between row and column vectors (compare with size described in
15.1). The size might be needed to determine the last element in a vector but this can
be found by using the reserved word end:

>> r5 = [1:2:6, -1:-2:-7]

r5 =
1 3 5 -1 -3 -5 -7
To get the 3rd to 6th entries:
>> r5(3:6)
ans =
5
-1

-3

>> c2(end), c2(end-1:end)

ans =
5
ans =
4
5

-5

To get alternate entries:

>> r5(1:2:7)
ans =
1
5

8.4
-3

We can convert a row vector into a column vector (and vice versa) by a process called transposing which is denoted by .

-7

What does r5(6:-2:1) give?

See help colon for a fuller description.

8.3

Transposing

>> w, w, c, c
w =
1
-2
3
ans =
1
-2
3
ans =
1.0000
3.0000
2.2361
ans =
1.0000
3.0000
>> t = w + 2*c
t =
3.0000
4.0000
>> T = 5*w-2*c
T =
3.0000
-16.0000
10.5279

Column Vectors

These have similar constructs to row vectors

except that entries are separated by ; or newlines
>> c = [ 1; 3; sqrt(5)]
c =
1.0000
3.0000
2.2361
>> c2 = [3
4
5]
c2 =
3
4
5
>> c3 = 2*c - 3*c2
c3 =
-7.0000
-6.0000
-10.5279

2.2361

7.4721

If x is a complex vector, then x gives the complex conjugate transpose of x:

so column vectors may be added or subtracted

>> x = [1+3i, 2-2i]
provided that they have the same length.
ans =
The length of a vector (number of elements)
1.0000 + 3.0000i
can be determined by
>> x
>> length(c)
ans =
ans = 3
1.0000 - 3.0000i
>> length(r5)
2.0000 + 2.0000i
ans = 7
6

2.0000 - 2.0000i

Note that the components of x were defined

without a * operator; this means of defining
complex numbers works even when the variable
i already has a numeric value. To obtain the
plain transpose of a complex number use . as
in

and the computation can be resumed where you

left off. We do not advocate this procedure except is special circumstances, but suggest making use of script files (see Section 10).
A list of variables used in the current session
may be seen with

>> x.
ans =
1.0000 + 3.0000i
2.0000 - 2.0000i

>> whos
They can also be seen in the Workspace pane
of the main window. See help whos and help
save.
>> whos

One must be aware at all times, as the next

example shows:

>> i=3; [1+2i, 3-i, 3-1i]

Name
ans =
ans
1.0000 + 2.0000i
0 3.0000 - 1.0000i v
v1
in which only the 2nd element has been influ- v2
enced by the value of the variable i.

Size
1 by
1 by
1 by
1 by

Elements
1
1
3
3
2
2
2
2

Bytes
8
24
16
16

Density
Full
Full
Full
Full

Complex
No
No
No
No

Grand total 16 elements using 128 bytes

Keeping a record
10

Issuing the command

Script Files

Script files are ordinary ASCII (text) files that

contain Matlab commands. It is essential that
such files have names having an extension .m
(e.g., myfile.m) and, for this reason, they are
commonly known as m-files. The commands in
this file may then be executed using
>> myfile
Note: the command does not include the file
name extension .m.
Script files are created with the built-in editor
(it is possible to change to your favourite editor in the Preferences window). Any text that
follows % on a line is ignored. This enables descriptive comments to be included. It is possible, via a mouse menu, to highlight commands
that appear in the Command History pane
to create a script file. Cut and Paste can
be used to copy individual commands from the
Command History pane into a script file.

>> diary mysession

will cause all subsequent text that appears on
the screen to be saved to the file mysession
located in the directory in which Matlab was
invoked. You may use any legal filename except the names on and off. The record may be
terminated by
>> diary off
The file mysession may be edited with your
favourite editor (the Matlab editor, emacs, or
even Word) to remove any mistakes.
If you wish to quit Matlab midway through a
calculation so as to continue at a later stage:
>> save thissession

will save the current values of all variables to a

file called thissession.mat. This file cannot
be edited. When you next startup Matlab, Exercise 10.1
1. Type in the commands from
type
8.4 into a file called exsub.m. Its contents might look like:
>> load thissession

The following emacslike commands may also

be used:

% My first script file: exsub.m

w, w, [1 2 3], [1 2 3]
t = w + 2*[1 2 3]
% Use w to compute T
T = 5*w-2*[1 2 3]

cntrl
cntrl
cntrl
cntrl
cntrl

a
e
f
b
d

move to start of line

move to end of line
move forwards one character
move backwards one character
delete character under the cursor

2. Check in the Current Folder pane of

the Matlab window (or use the command
what, which lists the m-files in the current directory) to see that the file is in Once the command is in the required form,
the correct area.
press return.
3. Use the command type exsub to see the Exercise 11.1 Type in the commands
contents of the file.
>> x = -1:0.1:1;
4. Execute the file with the command exsub.
>> plot(x,sin(pi*x),w-)
It is only the output from the commands (and >> hold on
not the commands themselves) that are dis- >> plot(x,cos(pi*x),r-)
played on the screen. To see the commands in
the command window prior to their execution:
>> echo on
and echo off will turn echoing off. Compare
the effect of
>> echo on, exsub, echo off
with the results obtained earlier.
See 22 for the related topic of function files.

11

Now use the cursor keys with suitable editing to

execute:
>> x = -1:0.05:1;
>> plot(x,sin(2*pi*x),w-)
>> plot(x,cos(2*pi*x),r-.), hold off

12

Keyboard Accelerators

12.1

Arithmetic with Vectors

Inner Product (*)

We shall describe two ways in which a meaning

may be attributed to the product of two vectors. In both cases the vectors concerned must
have the same length.
The first product is the standard inner product.
Suppose that u and v are two vectors of length
n, u being a row vector and v a column vector:

v1
v2

v = . .
u = [u1 , u2 , . . . , un ] ,
..

One can recall previous Matlab commands in

the Command Window by using the and
cursor keys. Repeatedly pressing will review
the previous commands (most recent first) and,
if you want to re-execute the command, simply
press the return key.
To recall the most recent command starting
with p, say, type p at the prompt followed by
. Similarly, typing pr followed by will recall
the most recent command starting with pr.
Once a command has been recalled, it may be
edited (changed). You can use and to
move backwards and forwards through the line,
characters may be inserted by typing at the current cursor position or deleted using the Del
key. This is most commonly used when long
command lines have been mistyped or when
you want to reexecute a command that is very
similar to one used previously.

vn
The inner product is defined by multiplying the
corresponding elements together and adding the
results to give a single number (inner).
uv =

n
X
i=1

ui vi .

20
>> [ sqrt(u*u), norm(u)]
For example, if u = [10, 11, 12], v = 21 ans =
22
19.1050
19.1050
then n = 3 and
where norm is a builtin Matlab function that
uv = 1020+(11)(21)+12(22) = 167. accepts a vector as input and delivers a scalar
as output. It can also be used to compute other
We can perform this product in Matlab by
norms: help norm.
>> u = [ 10, -11, 12], v = [20; -21; -22]
>> prod = u*v % row times column vector Exercise 12.1 The angle, , between two column vectors x and y is defined by
Suppose we also define a row vector w and a
column vector z by
x0 y
cos =
.
kxk kyk
>> w = [2, 1, 3], z = [7; 6; 5]
w =
Use this formula to determine the cosine of the
2
1
3
angle between
z =
7
x = [1, 2, 3]0 and y = [3, 2, 1]0 .
6
Hence show that the angle is 44.4153degrees.
5
and we wish to form the inner products of u
with w and v with z.

[Hint: see cosd and acosd.]

>> u*w
??? Error using ==> *
Inner matrix dimensions must agree.

12.2

Elementwise Product (.*)

The second way of forming the product of two

vectors of the same length is known as the Hadamard
an error results because w is not a column vec- product. It is rarely used in the course of nortor. Recall from page 6 that transposing (with ) mal mathematical calculations but is an invaluturns column vectors into row vectors and vice able Matlab feature. It involves vectors of the
versa. So, to form the inner product of two row same type. If u and v are two vectors of the
vectors or two column vectors,
same type (both row vectors or both column
vectors), the mathematical definition of this prod>> u*w
% u & w are row vectors
uct, which we shall call the Hadamard prodans =
uct, is the vector having the components
45
>> u*u
ans =
365
>> v*z
ans =
-96

% u is a row vector

u v = [u1 v1 , u2 v2 , . . . , un vn ].

The result is a vector of the same length and

% v & z are column vectors type as u and v. Thus, we simply multiply the
corresponding elements of two vectors. Summing the entries in the resulting vector would
give their inner product.
The Euclidean length of a vector is an example
For example, if u = [10, 11, 12], and w =
of the norm of a vector; it is denoted by the
[2, 1, 3] then n = 3 and
symbol kuk and defined by
v
u. w = [10 2, (11) (1), 12 (3)]
u n
uX
= [20, 11, 36]
kuk = t
|ui |2 ,
i=1

In Matlab, the product is computed with the

where n is its dimension. This can be computed operator .* and, using the vectors u, v, w, z
in Matlab in one of two ways:
defined on page 9,
9

Exercise 12.2 Enter the vectors

>> u.*w
ans =
20 -11 36
>> u.*v
ans =
200 231 -264
>> v.*z

U = [6, 2, 4],

3
4
W =
2
6

ans =
140
-126
-110
Perhaps the most common use of the Hadamard
product is in the evaluation of mathematical
expressions so that they may be plotted.

V = [3, 2, 3, 0],

, Z = 2

2
7

into Matlab. Which of the products

U*V, V*W, U*V, V*W, W*Z, U.*V
U*V, V*W, W*Z, U.*W, W.*Z, V.*W
is legal? State whether the legal products are
row or column vectors and give the values of
the legal results.

12.3

Elementwise Division (./)

Example 12.1 Tabulate the function

y = x sin x for x = 0, 0.25, . . . , 1.

In Matlab, the operator ./ is defined to give

element by element division of one vector by
anotherit is therefore only defined for vectors
The display is clearer with column vectors so of the same size and type.
we first define a vector of x-values: (see Trans>> a = 1:5, b = 6:10, a./b
posing: 8.4)
a =
>> x = (0:0.25:1);
1
2
3
4
5
To evaluate y we have to multiply each element
of the vector x by the corresponding element of b =
6
7
8
9
10
the vector sin x:
ans =
x sin x = x sin x
0.1667 0.2857 0.3750 0.4444 0.5000
0
0=
0
If we change to format rat (short for rational)
0.2500 0.7071 = 0.1768
0.5000 1.0000 = 0.5000
>> format rat
0.7500 0.7071 = 0.5303
>> (1:5)./(6:10)
1.0000 0.0000 = 0.0000
ans =
1/6
2/7
3/8
4/9
1/2
>> format compact
To carry this out in Matlab:
the output is displayed in fractions. Note that

>> y = x.*sin(pi*x)
y =
0
0.1768
0.5000
0.5303
0.0000

>> a./a
ans =
1
1
1
1
1
>> c = -2:2, a./c
c =
-2
-1
0
1
2
Warning: Divide by zero
ans =
-0.5000 -2.0000 Inf
4.0000

Note: a) the use of pi, b) x and sin(pi*x)

are both column vectors (the sin function is
2.5000
applied to each element of the vector). Thus,
the Hadamard product of these is also a column The previous calculation required division by
vector.
0notice the Inf, denoting infinity, in the answer.
10

>> a.*b -24, ans./c

ans =
-18
-10
0

12.4
12

26

Warning: Divide by zero

ans =
9
10
NaN
12

13

Elementwise Powers (.^)

The square of each element of a vector could be

computed with the command u.*u. However,
a neater way is to use the .^ operator:

Here we are warned about 0/0giving a NaN

(Not a Number).
Example 12.2 Estimate the limit
sin x
.
lim
x0
x
The idea is to observe the behaviour of the ratio sinxx for a sequence of values of x that approach zero. Suppose that we choose the sequence defined by the column vector
>> x = [0.1; 0.01; 0.001; 0.0001]
then
>> sin(pi*x)./x
ans =
3.0902
3.1411
3.1416
3.1416
which suggests that the values approach . To
get a better impression, we subtract the value of
from each entry in the output and, to display
more decimal places, we change the format
>> format long
>> ans -pi
ans =
-0.05142270984032
-0.00051674577696
-0.00000516771023
-0.00000005167713

>> u = [10, 11, 12]; u.^2

ans =
100
121
144
>> u.*u
ans =
100
121
144
>> ans.^(1/2)
ans =
10
11
12
>> u.^4
ans =
10000
14641
20736
>> v.^2
ans =
400
441
484
>> u.*w.^(-2)
ans =
2.5000 -11.0000
1.3333
Recall that powers (.^ in this case) are done
first, before any other arithmetic operation. Fractional and decimal powers are allowed.
When the base is a scalar and the power is a
vector we get
>> n = 0:4
n =
0
1
>> 2.^n
ans =
1
2

Can you explain the pattern revealed in these

numbers?
We also need to use ./ to compute a scalar
divided by a vector:

16

and, when both are vectors of the same dimension,

>> x = 1:3:15
x =
1
4
>> x.^n
ans =
1
4

>> 1/x
??? Error using ==> /
Matrix dimensions must agree.
>> 1./x
ans =
10
100
1000
10000
so 1./x works, but 1/x does not.
11

49

10

1000

13

28561

13

Plotting Functions

In order to plot the graph of a function, y =

sin 3x for 0 x 1, say, it is sampled at
a sufficiently large number of points and the
points (x, y) joined by straight lines. Suppose
we take N + 1 sampling points equally spaced
a distance h apart:
>> N = 10; h = 1/N; x = 0:h:1;
defines the set of points x = 0, h, 2h, . . . , 1h, 1
with h = 0.1. Alternately, we may use the
command linspace: The general form of the Fig. 2: Graph of y = sin 3x for 0 x 1
command is linspace (a,b,n) which gener- using h = 0.01.
ates n + 1 equispaced points between a and b,
inclusive. So, in this case we would use the 13.1 PlottingTitles & Labels
command
To put a title and label the axes, we use
>> x = linspace (0,1,11);
>> title(Graph of y = sin(3pi x))
The corresponding y values are computed by
>> xlabel(x axis)
>> ylabel(y-axis)
>> y = sin(3*pi*x);
The strings enclosed in single quotes, can be
anything of our choosing. Some simple LATEX
>> plot(x,y)
commands are available for formatting mathematical expressions and Greek characterssee
The result is shown in Fig. 1 below, where it is
Section 13.10.
clear that the value of N is too small.
See also ezplot the Easy to use function plotter.
and finally, we can plot the points with

13.2

Grids

A dotted grid may be added by

>> grid on
and is removed with grid off.

13.3

Line Styles & Colours

The default is to plot solid lines. A solid red

line is produced by
Fig. 1: Graph of y = sin 3x for 0 x 1
using h = 0.1.
On changing the value of N to 100:
>> N = 100; h = 1/N; x = 0:h:1;
>> y = sin(3*pi*x); plot(x,y)
we get the picture shown in Fig. 2.
12

>> plot(x,y,r--x)
The third argument is a string comprising characters that specify the colour (red), the line
style (dashed) and the symbol (x) to be drawn
at each data point. The order in which they
appear is unimportant and any, or all, may be
omitted. The options for colours, styles and
symbols include:

y
m
c
r
g
b
w
k

Colours
yellow
magenta
cyan
red
green
blue
white
black

Line
.
o
x
+
*
:
-.
--

Styles/symbols
point
circle
x-mark
plus
solid
star
dotted
dashdot
dashed

The number of available plot symbols is wider

than shown in this table. Use help plot to
obtain a full list. See also help shapes.
The command clf clears the current figure while
close(1) will close the graphics window labelled Figure 1. To open a new figure window type figure or, to get a window labelled
Figure 9, for instance, type figure (9). If
Figure 9 already exists, this command will
bring this window to the foreground and the
next plotting commands will be drawn on it.

13.4

Fig. 3: Graph of y = sin 3x and y = cos 3x

for 0 x 1 using h = 0.01.

13.5

Hold

A call to plot clears the graphics window before plotting the current graph. This is not convenient if we wish to add further graphics to the
figure at some later stage. To stop the window
being cleared:
>> plot(x,y,r-), hold on
>> plot(x,y,gx), hold off

Multiplots

Several graphs may be drawn on the same figure hold on holds the current picture; hold off
releases it (but does not clear the window, which
as in
can be done with clf). hold on its own tog>> plot(x,y,k-,x,cos(3*pi*x),g--)
gles the hold state.
A descriptive legend may be included with

13.6

Hard Copy

>> legend(Sin curve,Cos curve)

which will give a list of linestyles, as they appear in the plot command, followed by the brief
description provided in the command.
For further information do help plot etc.
The result of the commands
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>

plot(x,y,k-,x,cos(3*pi*x),g--)
legend(Sin curve,Cos curve)
title(Multi-plot)
xlabel(x axis), ylabel(y axis)
grid

To obtain a printed copy select Print from the

File menu on the Figure toolbar.
Alternatively one can save a figure to a file for
later printing (or editing). A number of formats is available (use help print to obtain a
list). To save the current figure in Encapsulated Color PostScript format, issue the Matlab command
print -depsc fig1
which will save a copy of the image in a file
called fig1.eps.

is shown in Fig. 3. The legend may be moved

print -f4 -djpeg90 figb
either manually by dragging it with the mouse
will save figure 4 as a jpeg file figb.jpg at a
or as described in help legend.
quality level of 90. It should be borne in mind
that, despite its name, the print command
does not send the file to a printer.
13

13.7

Subplot

Clicking the right mouse button will zoom out

by a factor of two.
The graphics window may be split into an mn
Holding down the left mouse button and dragarray of smaller windows into each of which we
ging the mouse will cause a rectangle to be outmay plot one or more graphs. The windows
lined. Releasing the button causes the contents
are counted 1 to mn rowwise, starting from
of the rectangle to fill the window.
the top left. Both hold and grid work on the
zoom off turns off the zoom capability.
current subplot.
Exercise 13.1 Draw graphs of the functions
>> subplot(221), plot(x,y)
>>
xlabel(x),ylabel(sin 3 pi x)
y = cos x
>> subplot(222), plot(x,cos(3*pi*x))
y = x
>>
xlabel(x),ylabel(cos 3 pi x)
>> subplot(223), plot(x,sin(6*pi*x))
for 0 x 2 on the same window. Use the
>>
xlabel(x),ylabel(sin 6 pi x)
zoom facility to determine the point of inter>> subplot(224), plot(x,cos(6*pi*x))
section of the two curves (and, hence, the root
>>
xlabel(x),ylabel(cos 6 pi x)
of x = cos x) to two significant figures.
subplot(221) (or subplot(2,2,1)) specifies
that the window should be split into a 2 2
array and we select the first subwindow.

13.8

13.9

Figure Properties

All plot properties can be edited from the Figure window by selecting the Edit and Tools
menus from the toolbar. For instance, to change
the linewidth of a graph, click Edit and choose
Figure Properties... from the menu. Clicking on the required curve will display its attributes which can be readily modified.
One of the shortcomings of editing the figure
window in this way is the difficulty of reproducing the results at a later date. The recommended alternative involves using commands
that directly control the graphics properties.
The current setting of any plot property can be
determined by first obtaining its handle number, which is simply a real number that we
save to a named variable:

Zooming

>> plt = plot (x,y.^3,k--o)

We often need to zoom in on some portion plt =
of a plot in order to see more detail. Clicking
188.0194
on the Zoom in or Zoom out button on the
Figure window is simplest but one can also use and then using the get command. This lists the
settings for a number of properties that include
the command
>>get(plt)
Color:
Pointing the mouse to the relevant position on LineStyle:
the plot and clicking the left mouse button will LineWidth:
zoom in by a factor of two. This may be re- Marker:
peated to any desired level.
MarkerSize:
XData:
>> zoom

14

[0 0 0]
--
1
o
6
[1 2 3]

YData:
ZData:

[27 8 1]
[1x0 double]

The colour is described by a rgb triple in which

[0 0 0] denotes black and [1 1 1] denotes
white. Properties can be changed with the set
command, for example
>> set(plt,markersize,12)
will change the size of the marker symbol o
while
>> set(plt,linestyle,:,ydata,[1 8 27])
will change the lifestyle from dashed to dotted while also changing the ycoordinates of the
data points. The commands

Example 13.1 Plot the first 100 terms

n in the
and ilsequence {yn } given by yn = 1 + n1
lustrate how the sequence converges to the limit
e = exp(1) = 2.7183.... as n .
Exercises such as this that require a certain
amount of experimentation are best carried out
by saving the commands in a script file. The
contents of the file (which we call latexplot.m)
are:

close all
figure(1);
set(0,defaultaxesfontsize,12)
set(0,defaulttextfontsize,16)
>> x = 0:.01:1; y=sin(3*pi*x);
set(0,defaulttextinterpreter,latex)
>> plot(x,y,k-,x,cos(3*pi*x),g--)
N = 100; n = 1:N;
>> legend(Sin curve,Cos curve)
y = (1+1./n).^n;
>> title(Multi-plot )
>> xlabel(x axis), ylabel(y axis) subplot(2,1,1)
plot(n,y,.,markersize,8)
>> set(gca,fontsize,16,...
hold on
ytick,-1:.5:1);
axis([0 N,2 3])
redraw Fig. 3 and the last line sets the font plot([0 N],[1, 1]*exp(1),--)
size to 16points and changes the tick-marks on text(40,2.4,$y_n = (1+1/n)^n$)
the y-axis to 1, 0.5, 0, 0.5, 1see Fig. 4. The text(10,2.8,y = e)
... in the penultimate line tell Matlab that the xlabel($n$), ylabel($y_n$)
line is split and continues on the next line.
The results are shown in the upper part of Fig. 5.

Fig. 4: Repeat of Fig. 3 with a font size of

16points and amended tick marks on the y-axis.

13.10

Fig. 5: The output from Example 13.1 (top)

and Example 13.2 (bottom).

Formatted text on Plots

It is possible to typeset simple mathematical The salient features of these commands are
expressions (using LATEX commands) in labels,
1. The set commands in lines 34 increase
legends, axes and text. We shall give two illusthe size of the default font size used for
trations.
15

the axis labels, legends, titles and text.

Line 4 tells Matlab to interpret any strings
contained within $ symbols as LATEX commands.

2. Greek characters , , . . . , , are produced by the strings \alpha, \beta,

. . . ,\omega,
\Omega. the integral symR
bol: is produced by \int.

2. Defining a variable N = 100 makes it easier to experiment with a different number

of sampling points.

3. The thickness of the line used in the plot

command is changed from its default value
(0.5) to 2.

3. The size of the plot symbol . is changed

from the default (6) to size 8 by the additional string followed in the plot command.

4. The graphics are saved in jpeg format to

the file eplot1.

13.11

Controlling Axes

4. The axis command changes the dimen- The look of a graph can be changed by using
sions of the plotting area to be 0 x N the axis command. We have already seen in
and 2 y 3.
Example 13.1 how the plotting area can be
The axis command has four parameters, changed.
the first two are the minimum and max- axis equal is required in order that a circle
imum values of x to use on the axis and does not appear as an ellipse
the last two are the minimum and maxi>> clf, N = 100; t = (0:N)*2*pi/N;
mum values of y.
>> x = cos(t); y = sin(t);
5. The command text(40,2.4,string ) >> plot(x,y,-,0,0,.);
prints string at the location with coordi- >> set(gca,ytick,-1:.5:1)
>> axis equal
nates (40 2.4).
6. The string y_n gives subscripts: yn , while See Fig. 6. We recommend looking at help
axis and experimenting with the commands
x^3 gives superscripts: x3 .
axis equal, axis off, axis square,
Example 13.2 Draw a graph the function y = axis normal, axis tight in any order.
2
e3x sin3 (3x) on the interval 2 x 2.
The appropriate commands are included in the
script file for the previous example (so the default values continue to operate):
subplot(2,1,2)
x = -2:.01:2;
y = exp(-3*x.^2).*sin(8*pi*x).^3;
plot(x,y,r-,linewidth,1)
xlabel($x$), ylabel($y$)
text(-1.95,.75,$ \exp(-40x^2)\sin^3(8\pi x)$)
print -djpeg90 eplot1
The results are shown in the lower part of Fig. 5.
1. sin3 8x is typeset by the LATEX string Fig. 6: Use of axis equal to get a circle to
$\sin^3 8\pi x$ and translates into the appear correctly.
Matlab command sin(8*pi*x).^3the
position of the exponent is different.

16

14

Elementwise Examples

Exercise 14.1 Tabulate the functions

y = (x2 + 3) sin x2

Example 14.1 Draw graphs of the functions

i)

y=

iii)

v=

sin x
x
x2 +1
x2 4

ii)

u=

iv)

w=

and

1
(x1)2 + x
(10x)1/3 2
(4x2 )1/2

z = sin2 x/(x2 + 3)

for 0 x 10.
>> x = 0:0.1:10;
>> y = sin(x)./x;
>> subplot(221), plot(x,y), title((i))
Warning: Divide by zero
>> u = 1./(x-1).^2 + x;
>> subplot(222),plot(x,u), title((ii))
Warning: Divide by zero
>> v = (x.^2+1)./(x.^2-4);
>> subplot(223),plot(x,v),title((iii))
Warning: Divide by zero
>> w = ((10-x).^(1/3)-1)./sqrt(4-x.^2);
Warning: Divide by zero
>> subplot(224),plot(x,w),title((iv))

for x = 0, 0.2, . . . , 10. Hence, tabulate the function

(x2 + 3) sin x2 sin2 x
.
w=
(x2 + 3)
Plot a graph of w over the range 0 x 10.

15

TwoDimensional Arrays

A rectangular array of numbers having m rows

and n columns is referred to as an m n matrix. It is usual in a mathematical setting to
enclose such objects in either round or square
bracketsMatlab insists on square ones. For
example, when m = 2, n = 3 we have a 2 3
matrix such as


5
7
9
A=
1 3 7
To enter such an matrix into Matlab we type
it in row by row using the same syntax as for
vectors:
>> A = [5 7 9
1 -3 -7]
A =
5
7
9
1
-3
-7
Rows may be separated by semi-colons rather
than a new line:
>> B = [-1 2 5; 9 0 5]
B =
-1
2
5
9
0
5
>> C = [0, 1; 3, -2; 4, 2]
C =
0
1
3
-2
4
2
>> D = [1:5; 6:10; 11:2:20]
D =
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
13
15
17
19

Note the repeated use of the dot (elementwise) operators.

Experiment by changing the axes (page 16),
grids (page 12) and hold(page 13).
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>

subplot(222),axis([0 10 0 10])
grid
grid
hold on
plot(x,v,--), hold off,
plot(x,y,:)

17

So A and B are 2 3 matrices, C is 3 2 and D

1
9
is 3 5.
7
-7
In this context, a row vector is a 1 n matrix
also redistributes the elements of A columnwise.
and a column vector a m 1 matrix.

15.1

15.2

Size of a matrix

Transpose of a matrix

We can get the size (dimensions) of a matrix Transposing a vector changes it from a row to a
column vector and vice versa (see 8.4)recall
with the command size
that is also performs the conjugate of complex
>> size(A), size(x)
numbers. The extension of this idea to matrices
ans =
is that transposing interchanges rows with the
2
3
corresponding columns: the 1st row becomes
ans =
the 1st column, and so on.
3
1
>> D, D
>> size(ans)
D =
ans =
1
2
3
4
5
1
2
6
7
8
9
10
So A is 2 3 and x is 3 1 (a column vector).
11
13
15
17
19
The last command size(ans) shows that the ans =
value returned by size is itself a 1 2 matrix
1
6
11
(a row vector). We can save the results for use
2
7
13
in subsequent calculations.
3
8
15
4
9
17
>> [r c] = size(A), S = size(A)
5
10
19
r =
>> size(D), size(D)
3
ans =
c =
3
5
2
ans =
S =
5
3
3
2
Arrays can be reshaped. A simple example is:

15.3

Special Matrices

>> A(:)
ans =
5
1
7
-3
9
-7

Matlab provides a number of useful builtin

matrices of any desired size.
ones(m,n) gives an m n matrix of 1s,
>> P = ones(2,3)
P =
1
1
1
1
1
1

which converts A into a column vector by stack- zeros(m,n) gives an m n matrix of 0s,
ing its columns on top of each other. This could >> Z = zeros(2,3), zeros(size(P))
also be achieved using reshape(A,6,1). The Z =
command
0
0
0
0
0
0
>> reshape(A,3,2)
ans
=
ans =
0
0
5
-3
18

0
0

Notice that multiplying the 3 1 vector x by

the 3 3 identity I has no effect (it is like multiplying a number by 1).

0
0

The second command illustrates how we can

construct a matrix based on the size of an ex15.5 Diagonal Matrices
isting one. Try ones(size(D)).
An n n matrix that has the same number A diagonal matrix is similar to the identity maof rows and columns and is called a square trix except that its diagonal entries are not necmatrix.
essarily equal to 1.

A matrix is said to be symmetric if it is equal

3 0 0
to its transpose (i.e. it is unchanged by transD= 0 4 0
position):
0 0 2
>> S = [2 -1 0; -1 2 -1; 0 -1 2],
is a 3 3 diagonal matrix. To construct this in
S =
Matlab, we could either type it in directly
2
-1
0
>> D = [-3 0 0; 0 4 0; 0 0 2]
-1
2
-1
D =
0
-1
2
-3
0
0
>> St = S
0
4
0
St =
0
0
2
2
-1
0
-1
2
-1
but this becomes impractical when the dimen0
-1
2
sion is large (e.g. a 100 100 diagonal matrix).
>> S-St
We then use the diag function.We first define a
ans =
vector d, say, containing the values of the diag0
0
0
onal entries (in order) then diag(d) gives the
0
0
0
required matrix.
0
0
0
>> d = [-3 4 2], D = diag(d)
d =
15.4 The Identity Matrix
-3
4
2
D
=
The n n identity matrix is a matrix of zeros
-3
0
0
except for having ones along its leading diag0
4
0
onal (top left to bottom right). This is called
0
0
2
eye(n) in Matlab (since mathematically it is
usually denoted by I).
On the other hand, if A is any matrix, the command diag(A) extracts its diagonal entries:
>> I = eye(3), x = [8; -4; 1], I*x
I =
>> F = [0 1 8 7; 3 -2 -4 2; 4 2 1 1]
1
0
0
F =
0
1
0
0
1
8
7
0
0
1
3
-2
-4
2
x =
4
2
1
1
8
>> diag(F)
-4
ans =
1
0
ans =
-2
8
1
-4
Notice that the matrix does not have to be
1
square.
19

15.6

Building Matrices

The keyword end can also be used with multidimensional arrays

It is often convenient to build large matrices

from smaller ones:

K(1:2,end-1:end)
ans =
3
4
7
8

>> C=[0 1; 3 -2; 4 2]; x=[8;-4;1];

>> G = [C x]
G =
0
1
8
3
-2
-4
4
2
1
>> A, B, H = [A; B]
A =
5
7
9
1
-3
-7
B =
-1
2
5
9
0
5
H =
5
7
9
1
-3
-7
-1
2
5
9
0
5

15.7

Tabulating Functions

This has been addressed in earlier sections but

we are now in a position to produce a more
suitable table format.
Example 15.1
Tabulate the functions y = 4 sin 3x and u =
3 sin 4x for x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, . . . , 0.5.

>> x = 0:0.1:0.5;
>> y = 4*sin(3*x); u = 3*sin(4*x);
>> [ x y u]
ans =
0
0
0
0.1000
1.1821
1.1683
so we have added an extra column (x) to C in
0.2000
2.2586
2.1521
order to form G and have stacked A and B on
0.3000
3.1333
2.7961
top of each other to form H.
0.4000
3.7282
2.9987
0.5000
3.9900
2.7279
>> J = [1:4; 5:8; 9:12; 20 0 5 4]
J =
Note the use of transpose () to get column
1
2
3
4
vectors. (we could replace the last command
5
6
7
8
by [x; y; u;])
9
10
11
12
We could also have done this more directly:
20
0
5
4
>> x = (0:0.1:0.5);
>> [x 4*sin(3*x) 3*sin(4*x)]

>> K = [ diag(1:4) J; J zeros(4,4)]

K =
1
0
0
0
1
2
3
4
0
2
0
0
5
6
7
8
0
0
3
0
9 10 11 12
0
0
0
4 20
0
5
4
1
5
9 20
0
0
0
0
2
6 10
0
0
0
0
0
3
7 11
5
0
0
0
0
4
8 12
4
0
0
0
0

15.8

Extracting Parts of Matrices

We may extract sections from a matrix in much

the same way as for a vector (page 6).
Each element of a matrix is indexed according
to which row and column it belongs to. The
entry in the ith row and jth column is denoted mathematically by Ai,j and, in Matlab,
by A(i,j). So

The command spy(K) will produce a graphical

display of the location of the nonzero entries in >> J
K (it will also give a value for nzthe number J =
of nonzero entries):
1
5
>> spy(K), grid
20

2
6

3
7

4
8

9
10
11
12
20
0
5
4
>> J(1,1)
ans =
1
>> J(2,3)
ans =
7
>> J(4,3)
ans =
5
>> J(4,5)
??? Index exceeds matrix dimensions.
>> J(4,1) = J(1,1) + 6
J =
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
7
0
5
4
>> J(1,1) = J(1,1) - 3*J(1,2)
J =
-5
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
7
0
5
4

10

11

Thus, : on its own refers to the entire column

or row depending on whether it is the first or
the second index.

15.9

Elementwise Products (.*)

The elementwise product works as for vectors:

corresponding elements are multiplied together
so the matrices involved must have the same
size.

In the following examples we extract i) the 3rd

column, ii) the 2nd and 3rd columns, iii) the
4th row, and iv) the central 2 2 matrix.
See 8.1.
>> J(:,3)
% 3rd column
ans =
3
7
11
5
>> J(:,2:3)
% columns 2 to 3
ans =
2
3
6
7
10
11
0
5
>> J(4,:)
% 4th row
ans =
7
0
5
4
>> % To get rows 2 to 3 & cols 2 to 3:
>> J(2:3,2:3)
ans =
6
7

>> A, B
A =
5
7
9
1
-3
-7
B =
-1
2
5
9
0
5
>> A.*B
ans =
-5
14
45
9
0
-35
>> A.*C
??? Error using ==> .*
Matrix dimensions must agree.
>> A.*C
ans =
0
21
36
1
6
-14
Elementwise powers .^ and division ./ work in
an analogous fashion.

15.10

Matrixvector products

We turn next to the definition of the product of

a matrix with a vector. This product is only defined for column vectors that have the same
number of entries as the matrix has columns.
So, if A is an m n matrix and x is a column
vector of length n, then the matrixvector Ax
is legal.
An m n matrix times an n 1 matrix a
m 1 matrix.
We visualise A as being made up of m row vectors stacked on top of each other, then the product corresponds to taking the inner product

21

(See 12.1) of each row of A with the vector x:

The result is a column vector with m entries.

"
#
8
5
7
9

Ax =
4
1 3 7
1


5 8 + 7 (4) + 9 1
=
1 8 + (3) (4) + (7) 1


21
=
13
It is somewhat easier in Matlab:
>> A = [5 7 9; 1 -3 -7]
A =
5
7
9
1
-3
-7
>> x = [8; -4; 1]
x =
8
-4
1
>> A*x
ans =
21
13
(m n) times (n 1) (m 1).
>> x*A
??? Error using ==> *
Inner matrix dimensions must agree.
Unlike multiplication in scalar arithmetic, A*x
is not the same as x*A.

15.11

MatrixMatrix Products

To form the product of an m n matrix A and

a n p matrix B, written as AB, we visualise
the first matrix (A) as being composed of m
row vectors of length n stacked on top of each
other while the second (B) is visualised as being
made up of p column vectors of length n:

..

A = m rows
, B=

|
{z
}
p

columns

22

The entry in the ith row and jth column of the

product is then the innerproduct of the ith row
of A with the jth column of B. The product is
an m p matrix:
(m n) times (n p) (m p).
Check that you understand what is meant by
working out the following examples by hand
and comparing with the Matlab answers.
>> A = [5 7 9; 1 -3 -7]
A =
5
7
9
1
-3
-7
>> B = [0, 1; 3, -2; 4, 2]
B =
0
1
3
-2
4
2
>> C = A*B
C =
57
9
-37
-7
>> D = B*A
D =
1
-3
-7
13
27
41
22
22
22
>> E = B*A
E =
57
-37
9
-7
We see that E = C suggesting that
(A*B) = B*A
Why is B A a 33 matrix while AB is 22?
Exercise 15.1 It is often necessary to factorize a matrix, e.g., A = BC or A = S T XS
where the factors are required to have specific
properties. Use the lookfor keyword command to make a list of factorizations commands
in Matlab.

15.12

Sparse Matrices

must all have the same length and only the first
n 1 terms of l are used while the last n 1
terms of u are used. spdiags places these vectors in the diagonals labelled -1, 0 and 1 (0
defers to the leading diagonal, negatively numbered diagonals lie below the leading diagonal,
etc.)

Matlab has powerful techniques for handling

sparse matrices these are generally large matrices (to make the extra work involved worthwhile) that have only a very small proportion
of nonzero entries.

Example 15.2 Create a sparse 5 4 matrix >> n = 5;

S having only 3 nonzero values: S1,2 = 10, >> d = (1:n); l = -(d+1);
S3,3 = 11 and S5,4 = 12.
>> u = flipud(d)
>> [l d u]
We first create 3 vectors containing the iindex,
ans =
the jindex and the corresponding values of
-2
1
5
each term and we then use the sparse com-3
2
4
mand.
-4
3
3
-5
4
2
>> i = [1, 3, 5]; j = [2,3,4];
-6
5
1
>> v = [10 11 12];
>>
B
=
spdiags([l
d u],-1:1,n,n);
>> S = sparse (i,j,v)
>>
full(B)
S =
ans =
(1,2)
10
1
4
0
0
0
(3,3)
11
-2
2
3
0
0
(5,4)
12
0
-3
3
2
0
>> T = full(S)
0
0
-4
4
1
T =
0
0
0
-5
5
0
10
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
11
0
Notice the use of the command flipud that
0
0
0
0
reverses the entries in a column vector. More
0
0
0
12
generally flipudreverses the order of rows in a
The matrix T is a full version of the sparse matrix (two dimensional array), while fliplr
reverses the order of columns.
matrix S.
Example 15.3 Develop Matlab code to create,
for any given value of n, the sparse (tridiagonal) matrix

1 n1
2
2
n2

3
3
n3

B=
.
..
..
..

.
.

n + 1 n 1 1
n n

16

Systems of Linear Equations

Mathematical formulations of engineering prob

lems often lead to sets of simultaneous linear

equations.

A general system of linear equations can be ex

pressed in terms of a coefficient matrix A, a
right-hand-side (column) vector b and an unknown (column) vector x as

We define three column vectors, one for each

diagonal of nonzeros and then assemble the
matrix using spdiags (short for sparse diagonals). The vectors are named l (lower diagonal), d (diagonal) and u (upper diagonal). They
23

Ax = b

or, componentwise, as

and solve the system of equations Ax = b using

the three alternative methods:

a1,1 x1 + a1,2 x2 + a1,n xn = b1

i) x = A1 b, (the inverse A1 may be computed in Matlab using inv(A).)

a2,1 x1 + a2,2 x2 + a2,n xn = b2

..
.

ii) x = A \ b,

an,1 x1 + an,2 x2 + an,n xn = bn

When A is non-singular and square (n n),
meaning that the number of independent equations is equal to the number of unknowns, the
system has a unique solution given by

iii) xT AT = bT leading to xT = b / A which

makes use of the slash or right division operator /. The required solution
is then the transpose of the row vector xT.

Exercise 16.2 Use the backslash operator to

solve the complex system of equations for which

where A1 is the inverse of A. Thus, the solu2 + 2i

1
0
1+i
tion vector x can, in principle, be calculated by
2 2i 1 ,
A = 1
b= 0
taking the inverse of the coefficient matrix A
0
1
2
1i
and multiplying it on the right with the rightExercise 16.3 Find information on the mahand-side vector b.
This approach based on the matrix inverse, thoughtrix inversion command inv using each of the
formally correct, is at best inefficient for prac- methods listed in Section 2 for obtaining help.
tical applications (where the number of equa- What kind of matrices are the inv command
tions may be extremely large) but may also give applicable to?
rise to large numerical errors unless appropri- Obviously problems may occur if the inverted
ate techniques are used. These issues are dis- matrix is nearly singular. Suggest a command
cussed in most courses and texts on numerical that can be used to give an indication on whether
methods. Various stable and efficient solution the matrix is nearly singular or not. [Hint: see
techniques have been developed for solving lin- the topics referred to by help inv.]
ear equations and the most appropriate in any
situation will depend on the properties of the 16.1 Overdetermined systems
coefficient matrix A. For instance, on whether
or not it is symmetric, or positive definite or An overdetermined system of linear equations is
if it has a particular structure (sparse or full). a one with more equations (m) than unknowns
Matlab is equipped with many of these special (n), i.e., the coefficient matrix has more rows
techniques in its routine library and many are than columns (m > n). Overdetermined systems frequently appear in mathematical modinvoked automatically.
The standard Matlab routine for solving sys- elling when the parameters of a model are detems of linear equations is invoked by calling termined by fitting to experimental data. Formally the system looks the same as for square
the matrix left-division routine,
systems but the coefficient matrix is rectangu>> x = A \ b
lar and so it is not possible to compute an inwhere \ is the matrix left-division operator verse. In these cases a solution can be found
by requiring that the magnitude of the residual
known as backslash (see help backslash).
vector r, defined by
Exercise 16.1 Enter the symmetric coefficient
r = Ax b,
matrix and righthandside vector b given by

be minimized. The simplest and most frequently

2 1 0
1
used measure of the magnitude of r is require
b= 0
A = 1 2 1 ,
the Euclidean length (or normsee Section 12.1)
0 1 2
1
x = A1 b

24

which corresponds to the sum of squares of the

components of the residual. This approach leads
to the least squares solution of the overdetermined system. Hence the least squares solution
is defined as the vector x that minimizes
rT r.

is to be used and that the model parameters,

k1 and k2 , are to be determined from experimental data. Five independent measurements
of the force and the corresponding spring deformations are measured and these are presented
in Table 1.
Force F [N]
5
50
500
1000
2000

It may be shown that the required solution satisfies the socalled normal equations
Cx = d, where C = AT A and d = AT b.
It is wellknown that the solution of this system
can be overwhelmed by numerical rounding error in practice unless great care is taken in its
solution (a large part of the difficulty is inherent in the loss of information in computing the
matrixmatrix product AT A). As in the solution of square systems of linear equations, special techniques have been developed to address
these issues and they have been incorporated
into the Matlab routine library.
This means that a direct solution to the problem of overdetermined equations is available in
Matlab through its left division operator \.
When the matrix A is not square, the operation

Deformation x [cm]
0.001
0.011
0.013
0.30
0.75

Table 1: Measured force-deformation data for

spring.

Using the quadratic force-deformation relationship together with the experimental data yields
an overdetermined system of linear equations
and the components of the residual are given
by

x = A\b

r1

= x1 k1 + x21 k2 F1

r2

= x2 k1 + x22 k2 F2

r3

= x3 k1 + x23 k2 F3

r4

= x4 k1 + x24 k2 F4

r5 = x5 k1 + x25 k2 F5 .
automatically gives the least squares solution
to Ax = b. This is illustrated in the next ex- These lead to the matrix and vector definitions
ample.

x1 x21
F1
x2 x22
F2
Example 16.1 A spring is a mechanical ele

ment which, for the simplest model, is characx

x
A= 3
3 and b = F3
x4 x24
F4
terized by a linear force-deformation relationship
x5 x25
F5 .
F = kx,
The appropriate Matlab commands give (the
F being the force loading the spring, k the spring components of x are all multiplied by 1e-2, i.e.,
constant or stiffness and x the spring deforma- 102 , in order to change from cm to m)
tion. In reality the linear forcedeformation relationship is only an approximation, valid for >> x = [.001 .011 .13 .3 .75]*1e-2;
small forces and deformations. A more accu- >> A = [x (x).^2]
rate relationship, valid for larger deformations, A =
is obtained if nonlinear terms are taken into
0.0000
0.0000
account. Suppose a spring model with a quadratic
0.0001
0.0000
relationship
0.0013
0.0000
0.0030
0.0000
F = k1 x + k2 x2
0.0075
0.0001
25

>> format short e

>> A
A =
1.0000e-05
1.0000e-10
1.1000e-04
1.2100e-08
1.3000e-03
1.6900e-06
3.0000e-03
9.0000e-06
7.5000e-03
5.6250e-05
>> format, format compact
>> b = [5 50 500 1000 2000];
The second column of A is mainly zeros in standard format and so a switch to format short
e is used the least squares solution to this system is given by
>> k = A\b
k =
1.0e+07 *
0.0386
-1.5993


0.39
Thus, k
106 and the quadratic
16.0
spring force-deformation relationship that optimally fits experimental data in the least squares
sense is
F 38.6 104 x 16.0 106 x2 .

Fig. 7: Data for Example 16.1 (circles) and best

least squares fit by a quadratic model (solid
line).
data to the screen or to files. In order to manage text, a new datatype of character is introduced. A piece of text is then simply a string
(vector) or array of characters.
Example 17.1 The assignment,
>> t1 = A

The data and solution may be plotted with the

following commands

assigns the value A to the 1-by-1 character array t1. The assignment,

>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>

>> t2 = BCDE
t2 =
BCDE
>> size(t2)
ans =
1
4

% plot data points

plot(x,f,o), hold on
X = (0:.01:1)*max(x);
% best fit curve
plot(X,[X (X.^2)]*k,-)
xlabel(x[m]), ylabel(F[N])

and the results are shown in Fig. 7.

Matlab has a routine polyfit for data fitting
by polynomials: see help polyfit. It is not
applicable in this example because we require
that the force deformation law passes through
the origin (so there is no constant term in the
quadratic model that we used).

17

assigns the value BCDE to the 1-by-4 character

array t2.
Strings can be combined by using the operations for array manipulations.
The assignment,
>> t3 = [t1,t2]

Characters, Strings and

Text

assigns a value ABCDE to the 1-by-5 character

array t3. The assignment,

The ability to process text in numerical processing is useful for the input and output of

>> t4 = [t3, are the first 5

characters in the alphabet.]
26

;...

assigns the value

ABCDE are the first 5
characters in the alphabet.
to the 2-by-27 character array t4. It is essential that the number of characters in both rows
of the array t4 is the same, otherwise an error
will result. The three dots ... signify that the
command is continued on the following line
Sometimes it is necessary to convert a character to the corresponding number, or vice versa.
These conversions are accomplished by the commands str2numwhich converts a string to
the corresponding number, and two functions,
int2str and num2str, which convert, respectively, an integer and a real number to the corresponding character string. These commands
are useful for producing titles and strings, such
as The value of pi is 3.1416. This can be
generated by the command
[The value of pi is ,num2str(pi)].

Example 18.1 The Fibonnaci sequence starts

off with the numbers 0 and 1, then succeeding
terms are the sum of its two immediate predecessors. Mathematically, f1 = 0, f2 = 1 and
fn = fn1 + fn2 ,

n = 3, 4, 5, . . . .

Test the assertion that the ratio fn1 /fn of two

successive
values approaches the golden ratio

( 5 1)/2 = 0.6180 . . ..
>> F(1) = 0; F(2) = 1;
>> for i = 3:20
F(i) = F(i-1) + F(i-2);
end
>> plot(1:19, F(1:19)./F(2:20),o )
>> hold on, xlabel(n)
>> plot(1:19, F(1:19)./F(2:20),- )
>> legend(Ratio of terms f_{n-1}/f_n)
>> plot([0 20], (sqrt(5)-1)/2*[1,1],--)

The last of these commands produces the dashed

>> N = 5; h = 1/N;
>> [The value of N is ,int2str(N),... horizontal line.
, h = ,num2str(h)]
ans =
The value of N is 5, h = 0.2

18

Loops

There are occasions that we want to repeat a

segment of code a number of different times
(such occasions are less frequent than other programming languages because of the : notation).
A standard for loop has the form
>> for counter = 1:20
.......
end

Example 18.2 Produce a list of the values of

the sums

which repeats the code as far as the end with

the variable counter=1 the first time, counter=2
the second time, and so forth. Rather more
generally
>> for counter = [23
.......
end

11

19

5.4

6]

S20
S21
..
.

=
=

1+
1+

1
22
1
22

+
+

1
32
1
32

+ +
+ +

1
202
1
202

1
212

S100

1+

1
22

1
32

+ +

1
202

1
212

+ +

There are a total of 81 sums. The first can

be computed using sum(1./(1:20).^2) (The
function sum with a vector argument sums its
repeats the code with counter=23 the first time, components. See 21.2].) A suitable piece of
Matlab code might be
counter=11 the second time, and so forth.
27

1
1002

>> S = zeros(100,1);
The first two instances illustrate that there can
>> S(20) = sum(1./(1:20).^2);
be considerable variation in successive calls to
>> for n = 21:100
the same operations. The third instance shows
>>
S(n) = S(n-1) + 1/n^2;
that the elapsed time can be assigned to a vari>> end
able.
>> clf; plot(S,.,[20 100],[1,1]*pi^2/6,-)
>> axis([20 100 1.5 1.7])
20 Logicals
>> [ (98:100) S(98:100)]
ans =
Matlab represents true and false by means of
98.0000
1.6364
the integers 0 and 1.
99.0000
1.6365
true = 1,
false = 0
100.0000
1.6366
If at some point in a calculation a scalar x, say,
where a column vector S was created to hold the has been assigned a value, we may make certain
answers. The first sum was computed directly logical tests on it:
x == 2 is x equal to 2?
using the sum command then each succeeding
x ~= 2 is x not equal to 2?
sum was found by adding 1/n2 to its predex > 2
is x greater than 2?
cessor. The little table at the end shows the
x < 2
is x less than 2?
values of the last three sumsit appears that
x >= 2 is x greater than or equal to 2?
they are approaching a limit (the value of the
x <= 2 is x less than or equal to 2?
limit is 2 /6 = 1.64493 . . .).
Pay particular attention to the fact that the
A more elegant solution is given by
test for equality involves two equal signs ==.
>> n = 1:100;
>> x = pi
>> S = cumsum(1./n.^2);
x =
where cumsum calculates the cumulative sum of
3.1416
entries in a vector.
>> x ~= 3, x ~= pi
ans =
Exercise 18.1 Repeat Example 18.2 to include
1
181 sums (i.e., the final sum should include the
ans
=
term 1/2002 .)
0

19

When x is a vector or a matrix, these tests are

performed elementwise:

Timing

Matlab allows the timing of sections of code x =

by providing the functions tic and toc. tic
-2.0000
3.1416
switches on a stopwatch while toc stops it and
-1.0000
0
returns the CPU time (Central Processor Unit) >> x == 0
in seconds. The timings will vary depending ans =
on the model of computer being used and its
0
0
0
current load.
0
1
0
>> x > 1, x >=-1
>> tic, sum((1:10000).^2);toc
ans =
Elapsed time is 0.000124 seconds.
0
1
1
>> tic, sum((1:10000).^2);toc
0
0
0
Elapsed time is 0.000047 seconds.
ans =
>> tic, s = sum((1:10000).^2);T = toc
0
1
1
T =
1
1
1
8.2059e-05
>> y = x>=-1, x > y
28

5.0000
1.0000

y =
0
1

1
1

1
1

0
0

1
0

1
0

ans =

We may combine logical tests, as in

>> x
x =
-2.0000
-5.0000
>> x > 3 &
ans =
0
0
>> x > 3 |
ans =
0
0

3.1416
-3.0000
x < 4

5.0000
-1.0000

1
0
0
0
x == -3

20.1

While Loops

There are some occasions when we want to repeat a section of Matlab code until some logical
1
1
condition is satisfied, but we cannot tell in ad1
0
vance how many times we have to go around
As one might expect, & represents and and (not the loop. This we can do with a while...end
so clearly) the vertical bar | means or; also ~ construct.
means not as in ~= (not equal), ~(x>0), etc.
Example 20.1 What is the greatest value of n
that can be used in the sum
>> x > 3 | x == -3 | x <= -5
ans =
12 + 22 + + n2
0
1
1
1
1
0
and get a value of less than 100?
One of the uses of logical tests is to mask out
certain elements of a matrix.
>> x, L = x >= 0
x =
-2.0000
3.1416
-5.0000
-3.0000
L =
0
1
1
0
1
1
>> pos = x.*L
pos =
0
3.1416
0
0

>> S = 1; n = 2;
>> while S+ n^2 < 100
S = S + n^2; n = n+1;
end
>> [n-1, S]
ans =
6
91

5.0000
-1.0000

The lines of code between while and end will

only be executed if the condition S+n^2 < 100
is true.
5.0000
0

Exercise 20.1 Replace 100 in the previous example by 10 and work through the lines of code
by hand. You should get the answers n = 2 and
S = 5.

so the matrix pos contains just those elements

of x that are nonnegative.

Exercise 20.2 Type the code from Example20.1

into a scriptfile named WhileSum.m (See 10.)

>> x = 0:0.05:6; y = sin(pi*x);

>> Y = (y>=0).*y;
>> plot(x,y,:,x,Y,- )

A more typical example is

29

Example 20.2 Find the approximate value of ans =

the root of the equation x = cos x. (See Exam14.0000
0.7388
0.0007
ple 13.1.)
We continue around the loop so long as d >
We may do this by making a guess x1 = /4, 0.001 and n < 20. For greater precision we
could use the condition d > 0.0001, and this
say, then computing the sequence of values
gives
xn = cos xn1 ,
n = 2, 3, 4, . . .
>> [n, xnew, d]
and continuing until the difference, d, between ans =
19.0000
0.7391
0.0001
two successive values |xn xn1 | is small enough.
from which we may judge that the root required
is x = 0.739 to 3 decimal places.
The general form of while statement is

Method 1:
>> x = zeros(1,20); x(1) = pi/4;
>> n = 1; d = 1;
>> while d > 0.001
n = n+1; x(n) = cos(x(n-1));
d = abs( x(n) - x(n-1) );
end
n,x(1:n)
n =
14
x =
Columns 1 through 6
0.7854 0.7071 0.7602 0.7247 0.7487 0.7326
Columns 7 through 12
0.7435 0.7361 0.7411 0.7377 0.7400 0.7385
Columns 13 through 14
0.7395 0.7388

while a logical test

Commands to be executed
when the condition is true
end

20.2

if...then...else...end

This allows us to execute different commands

depending on the truth or falsity of some logical
tests. To test whether or not e is greater than,
or equal to, e :

>> a = pi^exp(1); c = exp(pi);

>> if a >= c
b = sqrt(a^2 - c^2)
There are a number of deficiencies with this
end
program. The vector x stores the results of
each iteration but we dont know in advance
so that b is assigned a value only if a c. There
how many there may be. In any event, we are
is no output so we deduce that a = e < c = e .
rarely interested in the intermediate values of
A more common situation is
x, only the last one. Another problem is that
we may never satisfy the condition d 0.001, >> if a >= c
in which case the program will run forever, so
b = sqrt(a^2 - c^2)
we should place a limit on the maximum numelse
ber of iterations.
b = 0
Incorporating these improvements leads to
end
b =
0
Method 2:
which ensures that b is always assigned a value
and confirming that a < c.
A more extended form is

>> xold = pi/4; n = 1; d = 1;

>> while d > 0.001 & n < 20
n = n+1; xnew = cos(xold);
d = abs( xnew - xold );
xold = xnew;
end
>> [n, xnew, d]

>> if a >= c
b = sqrt(a^2 - c^2)
elseif a^c > c^a

30

ans =
-0.5664

b = c^a/a^c
else
b = a^c/c^a
end
b =
0.2347

-0.1416

0.1416

0.5664

Do help round for help information.

21.2

The sum Function

Exercise 20.3 Which of the above statements The sum applied to a vector adds up its components (as in sum(1:10)) while, for a matrix,
assigned a value to b?
it adds up the components in each column
and returns a row vector. sum(sum(A)) then
The general form of the if statement is
sums all the entries of A.
if logical test 1
>> A = [1:3; 4:6; 7:9]
Commands to be executed if test 1
A =
is true
1
2
3
elseif logical test 2
4
5
6
Commands to be executed if test 2
7
8
9
is true but test 1 is false
>> s = sum(A), ss = sum(sum(A))
..
.
s =
12
15
18
end
ss =
45

21

Further Builtin Functions>>

x = pi/4*(1:3);
>> A=[sin(x),sin(2*x),sin(3*x)]/sqrt(2)
21.1 Rounding Numbers
>> A =
0.5000
0.7071
0.5000
There are a variety of ways of rounding and
0.7071
0.0000
-0.7071
chopping real numbers to give integers. Use the
0.5000
-0.7071
0.5000
definitions given in the table in 26 on page 42
in order to understand the output given below:
>> s1 = sum(A.^2), s2 = sum(sum(A.^2))
s1 =
>> x = [-4 -1 1 4]*pi
1.0000
1.0000
1.0000
x =
-12.5664
-3.1416
3.1416
12.5664 s2 =
3.0000
>> round(x)
ans =
The sums of squares of the entries in each col-13
-3
3
13
umn of A are equal to 1 and the sum of squares
>> fix(x)
of
all the entries is equal to 3.
ans =
-12
-3
3
12
>> A*A
>> floor(x)
ans =
ans =
1.0000
0
0
-13
-4
3
12
0
1.0000
0.0000
>> ceil(x)
0
0.0000
1.0000
ans =
>> A*A
-12
-3
4
13
ans =
>> sign(x), rem(x,3)
1.0000
0
0
ans =
0
1.0000
0.0000
-1
0
1
1
1
0
0.0000
1.0000
31

It appears that the products AA0 and A0 A are

both equal to the identity:
>> A*A - eye(3)
ans =
1.0e-15 *
-0.2220
0
0
-0.2220
0
0.0555
>> A*A - eye(3)
ans =
1.0e-15 *
-0.2220
0
0
-0.2220
0
0.0555

0
0.0555
-0.2220

21.4

Random Numbers

The function rand(m,n) produces an mn matrix of random numbers, each of which is in the
range 0 to 1. rand on its own produces a single
random number.
>> y = rand, Y = rand(2,3)
y =
0.9191
Y =
0.6262
0.1575
0.2520
0.7446
0.7764
0.6121

0
0.0555
-0.2220

Repeating these commands will lead to different answers. Example 22.2 gives an illustration
of the use of random numbers.

This is confirmed since the differences are at

roundoff error levels (less than 1015 ). A matrix with this property is called an orthogonal 21.5 find for vectors
matrix.
The function find returns a list of the positions (indices) of the elements of a vector sat21.3 max & min
isfying a given condition. For example,
These functions act in a similar way to sum. If >> x = -1:.05:1;
x is a vector, then max(x) returns the largest >> y = sin(3*pi*x).*exp(-x.^2);
element in x
>> plot(x,y,:)
>> k = find(y > 0.2)
>> x = [1.3 -2.4 0 2.3]
k =
x =
Columns 1 through 12
1.3000
-2.4000
0
2.3000
9 10 11 12 13 22 23 24 25 26 27 36
>> max(x), max(abs(x))
Columns 13 through 15
ans =
37 38 39
2.3000
>> hold on, plot(x(k),y(k),o)
ans =
>> km = find( x>0.5 & y<0)
2.4000
km =
>> [m, j] = max(x)
32
33
34
m =
>> plot(x(km),y(km),-)
2.3000
j =
4
21.6 find for matrices
When we ask for two outputs, the first gives us
the maximum entry and the second the index
of the maximum element.
For a matrix, A, max(A) returns a row vector containing the maximum element from each
column. Thus, to find the largest element in A,
we use max(max(A)).

32

The findfunction operates in much the same

way for matrices:
>> A = [ -2 3 4 4; 0 5 -1 6; 6 8 0 1]
A =
-2
3
4
4
0
5
-1
6
6
8
0
1
>> k = find(A==0)
k =

22

Function mfiles

We can extend the number of Matlab built-in

functions by writing our own. They are special
cases of mfiles (7).
Example 22.1 The area, A, of a triangle with
sides of length a, b and c is given by
p
A = s(s a)(s b)(s c),
where s = (a+b+c)/2. Write a Matlab function
that will accept the values a, b and c as inputs
and return the value of A as output.
The main steps to follow when defining a Matlab function are:

2
9

1. Decide on a name for the function, making sure that it does not conflict with a
name that is already used by Matlab. In
this example the name of the function is
to be area, so its definition will be saved
in a file called area.m

Thus, we find that A has elements equal to 0 in

positions 2 and 9. To interpret this result we
have to recognize that find first reshapes A
into a column vector (see 15.1)this is equivalent to numbering the elements of A by columns
as in
1 4 7 10
2 5 8 11
3 6 9 12
>> n
n =

2. The first line of the file must have the

format:
function [list of outputs]

= find(A <= 0)

= function name(list of inputs)

For our example, the output (A) is a function of the three variables (inputs) a, b
and c so the first line should read

1
2
8
9
>> A(n)
ans =
-2
0
-1
0

function [A] = area(a,b,c)

3. Document the function. That is, describe
briefly the purpose of the function and
how it can be used. These lines should be
preceded by % which signify that they are
comment lines that will be ignored when
the function is evaluated.

Thus, n gives a list of the locations of the entries

in A that are 0 and then A(n) gives us the
values of the elements selected.
>> m = find( A == 0)
m =
5
11

4. Finally include the code that defines the

function. This should be interspersed with
sufficient comments to enable another user
to understand the processes involved.
The complete file might look like:

Since we are dealing with A, the entries are

numbered by rows.
33

Matlab now considers the name sin to refer to

a variable and pi/2 in the command sin(pi/2)
is interpreted as an index to a vector. To reclaim the function name we clear the variable
sin from memory with
>> clear sin
The variable s used in the definition of the area
function above is a local variable: its value is
local to the function and cannot be used outside:

function [A] = area(a,b,c)

% Compute the area of a triangle whose
% sides have length a, b and c.
% Inputs:
%
a,b,c: Lengths of sides
% Output:
%
A: area of triangle
% Usage:
%
Area = area(2,3,4);
% Written by dfg, Oct 14, 1996.
s = (a+b+c)/2;
A = sqrt(s*(s-a)*(s-b)*(s-c));
%%%%%%%%% end of area %%%%%%%%%%%

>> s
??? Undefined function or variable s.

If we were interested in the value of s as well

The command
as A, then the first line of the file should be
>> help area
changed to
will produce the leading comments from the
file:
function [A,s] = area(a,b,c)
Compute the area of a triangle whose
sides have length a, b and c.
Inputs:
a,b,c: Lengths of sides
Output:
A: area of triangle
Usage:
Area = area(2,3,4);
Written by dfg, Oct 14, 1996.

where there are two output variables.

This function can be called in several different
ways:
1. No outputs assigned
>> area(10,15,20)
ans =
72.6184

To evaluate the area of a triangle with side of

length 10, 15, 20:
>> Area = area(10,15,20)
Area =
72.6184

gives only the area (first of the output

variables from the file) assigned to ans;
the second output is ignored.
2. One output assigned

where the result of the computation is assigned

to the variable Areathe use of a capitalised
variable name is critical here, otherwise there
would be confusion between the variable name
and the function name. If we inadvertently use
a variable name that coincides with a function
name, as in
>> sin = sin(pi/6)
sin =
0.5000
>> sin(pi/2)
??? Subscript indices must either be
real positive integers or logicals.

34

>> Area = area(10,15,20)

Area =
72.6184
again the second output is ignored.
3. Two outputs assigned
>> [Area, hlen] = area(10,15,20)
Area =
72.6184
hlen =
22.5000

The previous examples illustrate the fact that

a function may have a different number of outputs. It is also possible to write function files
that accepts a variable number of inputs. For
example, in the context of our area function,
to calculate the area of a right angled triangle it
is only necessary to specify the lengths of two
of the sides since the third (the hypotenuse)
can be calculated by Pythagorass theorem. So
our amended function operates as previously
described but, when only two input arguments
are supplied, it assumes the triangle to be right
angled. It does this by using the reserved variable nargin that holds the number of input arguments. The revised function, called area2,
might then resemble the following code:
function [A] = area2(a,b,c)
% Compute the area of a triangle whose
% sides have length a, b and c.
% Inputs: either
%
a,b,c: Lengths of 3 sides
% or
%
a, b: two shortest sides of a
%
right angled triangle
% Output:
%
A: area of triangle
% Usage:
%
Area = area2(2,3,4);
% or
%
Area = area2(3,4);
% Written by dfg, Oct 14, 1996.
% Extended Oct 25, 2012
if nargin <2
error( Not enough arguments)
elseif nargin==2
c = sqrt(a^2+b^2);
end
s = (a+b+c)/2;
A = sqrt(s*(s-a)*(s-b)*(s-c));
%%%%%%%%% end of area2 %%%%%%%%%%%

Devise a test to warn the user of this type of

situation.
Exercise 22.2 Extend the area function so that
it also calculates the area of an equilateral triangle when only one input argument is supplied,
as in area(2).
Example 22.2 Write a functionfile that will
simulate n throws of a pair of dice.
This requires random numbers that are integers
in the range 1 to 6 which can be produced with
floor(1 + 6*rand)
Recall that floor takes the largest integer that
is smaller than a given real number (see 21.1
and Table 2, page 42).
File: dice.m
function [d] = dice(n)
% simulates "n" throws of a pair of dice
% Input:
n, the number of throws
% Output: an n times 2 matrix, each
%
row referring to one throw.
%
% Useage: T = dice(3)
d = floor(1 + 6*rand(n,2));
%% end of dice
>> dice(3)
ans =
6
1
2
3
4
1
>> sum(dice(100))/100
ans =
3.8500
3.4300
The last command gives the average value over
100 throws (it should theoretically have the value
3.5).

The command error issues an error message

to the screen and could be usefully employed in
the following exercise.

Example 22.3 Construct a function that will

return the nth Fibonnaci number fn , where
f1 = 0, f2 = 1 and

Exercise 22.1 Explain the output obtained from

the command
area(4,5,10)

fn = fn1 + fn2 ,

n = 3, 4, 5, . . . .

(See Example 18.1.) The function has:

35

 Input: Non-negative integer n

else
f1 = 0; f2 = 1;
Output: fn
for i = 3:n
f = f1 + f2;
We shall describe four possible functions and
f1 = f2; f2 = f;
try to assess which provides the best solution.
end
end
Method 1: File Fib1.m
Method 3: File: Fib3.m
This version makes use of an idea called recursive programmingthe function makes calls
to itself.

function f = Fib1(n)
% Returns the nth number in the
% Fibonacci sequence.
F = zeros(1,n);
F(2) = 1;
for i = 3:n
F(i) = F(i-1) + F(i-2);
end
f = F(n);

function f = Fib3(n)
% Returns the nth number in the
% Fibonacci sequence.
if n==1
f = 0;
elseif
n==2
This code resembles that given in Example 18.1.
f
=
1;
We have simply enclosed it in a function mfile
and given it the appropriate header. The most else
f = Fib3(n-1) + Fib3(n-2);
significant change is the line F=zeros(1,n) which
serves to both define the value of F(1) and to end
allocate sufficient memory to store a vector to
hold the first n Fibonacci numbers. Had we not Method 4: File Fib4.m
The
done this then the length of the vector F would The final version uses matrix powers.

 vecfn
be extended on each trip around the loop and
.
tor y has two components, y =
fn+1
more memory would have to be allocated for
its storage. The time penalties this would incur
would not be significant in this example (since, function f = Fib4(n)
with modest values of n, it computes in a tiny % Returns the nth number in the
fraction of a second) but could be important % Fibonacci sequence.
when dealing with large arrays in codes that A = [0 1;1 1];
y = A^n*[1;0];
are run many times over.
f=y(1);
Method 2: File Fib2.m
The first version was rather wasteful of memory, all the entries in the sequence where saved
even though we only required the last one for
output. The second version removes the need
to use a vector.
function f = Fib2(n)
% Returns the nth number in the
% Fibonacci sequence.
if n==1
f = 0;
elseif n==2
f = 1;

Assessment: One may think that, on grounds

of style, the 3rd is best (it avoids the use of
loops) followed by the second (it avoids the use
of a vector). The situation is somewhat different when it comes to speed of execution. When
n = 20 the time taken by each of the methods
is (in seconds)
Method
1
2
3
4

36

Time
5.8052 105
2.5534 105
1.4972 101
5.4041 105

What is immediately obvious from these tim- >> [X,Y] =

ings is that Method 3 is significantly slower >> X
than the others. Moreover, the time increases X =
2.0000
dramatically as n is increased and is totally im2.0000
practical. Methods 1, 2, and 4 execute very
2.0000
rapidly and the times increase quite slowly as
2.0000
n is increased. When times are averaged over
2.0000
many hundreds of runs it becomes clear that >> Y
Method 2 is the most efficient followed by Method 1.
Y =

23

1.0000
1.5000
2.0000
2.5000
3.0000

Plotting Surfaces

meshgrid(2:.5:4, 1:.5:3);

2.5000
2.5000
2.5000
2.5000
2.5000

3.0000
3.0000
3.0000
3.0000
3.0000

3.5000
3.5000
3.5000
3.5000
3.5000

4.0000
4.0000
4.0000
4.0000
4.0000

1.0000
1.5000
2.0000
2.5000
3.0000

1.0000
1.5000
2.0000
2.5000
3.0000

1.0000
1.5000
2.0000
2.5000
3.0000

1.0000
1.5000
2.0000
2.5000
3.0000

A surface is defined mathematically by a function f (x, y)corresponding to each value of (x, y)

we compute the height of the function by
If we think of the ith point along from the left

and the jth point up from the bottom of the grid)

as corresponding to the (i, j)th entry in a matrix,
then (X(i,j), Y(i,j)) are the coordinates of the
point. We then need to evaluate the function f using X and Y in place of x and y, respectively. As
in Example 14.1, elementwise operations (powers,
products, etc.) are usually appropriate.

z = f (x, y).

In order to plot this we have to decide on the

ranges of x and ysuppose 2 x 4 and
1 y 3. This gives us a square in the (x, y)
plane. Next, we need to choose a grid on this
domain; Figure 8 shows the grid with intervals
0.5 in each direction. Finally, we have to eval- Example 23.1 Plot the surface defined by the function
f (x, y) = (x 3)2 (y 2)2
for 2 x 4 and 1 y 3.
>>
>>
>>
>>

[X,Y] = meshgrid(2:.2:4, 1:.2:3);

Z = (X-3).^2-(Y-2).^2;
mesh(X,Y,Z)
title(Saddle), xlabel(x),ylabel(y)

Fig. 8: An example of a 2D grid

uate the function at each point of the grid and
plot it.
Suppose we choose a grid with intervals 0.5 in
each direction for illustration. The x and y
coordinates of the grid lines are
x = 2:0.5:4;

y = 1:0.5:3;
Fig. 9: Plot of Saddle function.

in Matlab notation. We construct the grid with

meshgrid:
37

Exercise 23.1 Repeat the previous example replac- >> fmax = max(max(f))
ing mesh by surf and then by surfl. Consult the fmax =
help pages to find out more about these functions.
0.0886
>> kmax = find(f==fmax)
Example 23.2 Plot the surface defined by the func- kmax =
tion
323
2
2
f = xye2(x +y )
539
on the domain 2 x 2, 2 y 2. Find the >> Pos = [X(kmax), Y(kmax)]
values and locations of the maxima and minima of Pos =
-0.5000
0.6000
the function.
0.5000
-0.6000
>> plot(X(kmax),Y(kmax),*)
>> [X,Y] = meshgrid(-2:.1:2,-2:.2:2);
>> text(X(kmax),Y(kmax), Maximum)
>> f = -X.*Y.*exp(-2*(X.^2+Y.^2));
>> figure (1)
See 13.10 for formatting text and labels.
>> mesh(X,Y,f), xlabel(x), ylabel(y), grid
>> figure (2), contour(X,Y,f)
>> xlabel(x), ylabel(y), grid, hold on

Fig. 11: contour plot showing maxima.

24

Reading/Writing Data Files

Direct input of data from keyboard becomes impractical when

the amount of data is large and
the same data is analysed repeatedly.
In these situations input and output is preferably
accomplished via data files. We have already described in Section 9 the use of the commands save
and load that, respectively, write and read the values of variables to disk files.
When data are written to or read from a file it
is crucially important that a correct data format
is used. The data format is the key to interpreting
the contents of a file and must be known in order to
correctly interpret the data in an input file. There
are two types of data files: formatted and unformatted. Formatted data files uses format strings

Fig. 10: mesh and contour plots.

To locate the maxima of the f values on the grid:

38

to define exactly how and in what positions of a

record the data is stored. Unformatted storage, on
the other hand, only specifies the number format.
The files used in this section are available from the
web site
http://www.maths.dundee.ac.uk/
software/matlab.shtml
Those that are unformatted are in a satisfactory
form for the Windows version on Matlab (version
6.1) but not on Version 5.3 under Unix.
Exercise 24.1 Suppose the numeric data is stored
in a file table.dat in the form of a table, as
shown below.
100
200
300
400
500

a = fscanf(fid, format,size) assigns to

variable a data read from file with identifier
fid under format format.
Exercise 24.2 Study the available information and
help on fscanf and fprintf commands. What is
the meaning of the format string, %3d\n?
Example 24.1 Suppose a sound pressure measurement system produces a record with 512 time pressure readings stored on a file sound.dat. Each
reading is listed on a separate line according to a
data format specified by the string, %8.6f %8.6f.
A set of commands reading time-sound pressure
data from sound.dat is,
Step 1: Assign a namestring to a file identifier.

2256
4564
3653
6798
6432

>> fid1 = fopen(sound.dat,r);

The string r indicates that data is to be read
(not written) from the file.
Step 2: Read the data to a vector named data and
close the file,

The three commands,

>> data = fscanf(fid1, %f %f);

>> fclose(fid1);

>> fid = fopen(table.dat,r);

>> a = fscanf(fid,%3d%4d);
>> fclose(fid);

Step 3: Partition the data in separate time and sound

pressure vectors,

respectively

>> t = data(1:2:length(data));
>> press = data(2:2:length(data));

1. open a file for reading (this is designated by

the string r). The variable fid is assigned
a unique integer which identifies the file used
(a file identifier). We use this number in all
subsequent references to the file.
2. read pairs of numbers from the file whose
identifier is fid, one with 3 digits and one
with 4 digits, and
3. close the file with file identifier fid.

The pressure signal can be plotted in a lin-lin

diagram,
>> plot(t, press);
The result is shown in Figure 12.

24.2

Unformatted Files

Unformatted or binary data files are used when

small-sized files are required. In order to interpret
an unformatted data file the data precision must
be specified. The precision is specified as a string,
e.g., float32, controlling the number of bits read
for each value and the interpretation of those bits
24.1 Formatted Files
as character, integer or floating point values. PreSome computer codes and measurement instruments cision float32, for instance, specifies each value
produce results in formatted data files. In order to in the data to be stored as a floating point number
read these results into Matlab for further analysis in 32 memory bits.
the data format of the files must be known. ForExample 24.2 Suppose a system for vibration meamatted files in ASCII format are written to and
surement stores measured acceleration values as floatread from with the commands fprintf and fscanf.
ing point numbers using 32 memory bits. The data
fprintf(fid, format, variables) writes is stored on file vib.dat. The following commands
variables an a format specified in string for- illustrate how the data may be read into Matlab for
analysis.
mat to the file with identifier fid
This produces a column vector a with elements,
100 2256 200 4564 ...500 6432. This vector can
be converted to 5 2 matrix by the command
A = reshape(a,2,5);.

39

>> xlabel(Time,[s]);
>> ylabel(Acceleration, [m/s^2]);

25

Fig. 12: Graph of sound data from Example 24.1

Step 1: Assign a file identifier, fid, to the string specifying the file name.
>> fid = fopen(vib.dat,rb);
The string rb specifies that binary numbers are to be read from the file.

The efficiency of programs that are used often and

by several different people can be improved by simplifying the input and output data management.
The use of Graphic User Interfaces (GUI), which
provides facilities such as menus, pushbuttons, sliders etc, allow programs to be used without any
knowledge of Matlab. They also provides means
for efficient data management.
A graphic user interface is a Matlab script file customized for repeated analysis of a specific type of
problem. There are two ways to design a graphic
user interface. The simplest method is to use a
tool especially designed for the purpose. Matlab
provides such a tool and it is invoked by typing
guide at the Matlab prompt. Maximum flexibility
and control over the programming is, however, obtained by using the basic user interface commands.
The following text demonstrates the use of some
basic commands.
Example 25.1 Suppose a sound pressure spectrum
is to be plotted in a graph. There are four alternative plot formats; lin-lin, lin-log, log-lin and log-log.
The graphic user interface below reads the pressure
data stored on a binary file selected by the user,
plots it in a lin-lin format as a function of frequency
and lets the user switch between the four plot formats.

Step 2 Read all data stored on file vib.dat into a

vector vib.
>> vib = fread(fid, float32);
>> fclose(fid);
>> size(vib)
ans =
131072
The size(vib) command determines the size,
i.e., the number of rows and columns of the
vibration data vector.
In order to plot the vibration signal with a
correct time scale, the sampling frequency
(the number of instrument readings taken
per second) used by the measurement system
must be known. In this case it is known to
be 24000 Hz so that there is a time interval
of 1/24000 seconds between two samples.
Step 3: Create a column vector containing the correct time scale.
>> dt = 1/24000;
>> t = dt*(1:length(vib));
Step 4: Plot the vibration signal in a lin-lin diagram
>> plot(t,vib);
>> title(Vibration signal);

Graphic User Interfaces

We use two mfiles. The first (specplot.m) is the

main driver file which builds the graphics window.
It calls the second file (firstplot.m) which allows
the user to select among the possible *.bin files in
the current directory.
%
%
%
%
%
%
%

File: specplot.m
GUI for plotting a user selected frequency
spectrumin four alternative plot formats,
lin-lin, lin-log, log-lin and log-log.
Author: U Carlsson, 2001-08-22

% Create figure window for graphs

figWindow = figure(Name,Plot alternatives);
% Create file input selection button
fileinpBtn = uicontrol(Style,pushbutton,...
string,File,position,[5,395,40,20],...
callback,[fdat,pdat] = firstplot;);

40

% Press File calls function firstplot

data = fread(fid,float32);
% Close file
% Create pushbuttons for switching between
fclose(fid);
% four different plot formats. Set up the
% Partition data vector in frequency and
% axis stings.
% pressure vectors
X = Frequency, [Hz];
pdat = data(2:2:length(data));
Y = Pressure amplitude, [Pa];
fdat = data(1:2:length(data));
linlinBtn = uicontrol(style,pushbutton,...% Plot pressure signal in a lin-lin diagram
string,lin-lin,...
plot(fdat,pdat);
position,[200,395,40,20],callback,... % Define suitable axis labels
plot(fdat,pdat);xlabel(X);ylabel(Y););
xlabel(Frequency, [Hz]);
linlogBtn = uicontrol(style,pushbutton,...ylabel(Pressure amplitude, [Pa]);
string,lin-log,...
Executing this GUI from the command line
position,[240,395,40,20],...
(>> specplot) brings the following screen.
callback,...
semilogy(fdat,pdat);xlabel(X);ylabel(Y););
loglinBtn = uicontrol(style,pushbutton,...
string,log-lin,...
position,[280,395,40,20],...
callback,...
semilogx(fdat,pdat);xlabel(X);ylabel(Y););
loglogBtn = uicontrol(style,pushbutton,...
string,log-log,...
position,[320,395,40,20],...
callback,...
loglog(fdat,pdat);xlabel(X);
ylabel(Y););
% Create exit pushbutton with red text.
exitBtn = uicontrol(Style,pushbutton,...
string,EXIT,position,[510,395,40,20],...
foregroundcolor,[1 0 0],...
callback,close;);
Fig. 13: Graph of vibration data from Exam-

ple 25.1
%
%
%
%
%
%
%

Script file: firstplot.m

Brings template for file selection. Reads
selected filename and path and plots
spectrum in a lin-lin diagram.
Output data are frequency and pressure
amplitude vectors: fdat and pdat.
Author: U Carlsson, 2001-08-22

Example 25.1 illustrates how the callback property allows the programmer to define what actions
should result when buttons are pushed etc. These
actions may consist of single Matlab commands or
complicated sequences of operations defined in various subroutines.

function [fdat,pdat] = firstplot

Exercise 25.1 Five different sound recordings are

stored on binary data files, sound1.bin, sound2.bin,
. . . , sound5.bin. The storage precision is float32
and the sounds are recorded with sample frequency
12000 Hz.
Write a graphic user interface that, opens an interface window and

% Call Matlab function uigetfile that

% brings file selction template.
[filename,pathname] = uigetfile(*.bin,...
Select binary data-file:);
% Change directory
cd(pathname);
% Open file for reading binary floating
% point numbers.
fid = fopen(filename,rb);

lets the user select one of the five sounds,

plots the selected sound pressure signal as a
function of time in a lin-lin diagram,

41

 lets the user listen to the sound by pushing a

SOUND button and finally
closes the session by pressing a CLOSE button.

26

Command Summary

The command
>> help
will give a list of categories for which help is available (e.g. matlab/general covers the topics listed
in Table 3.
Further information regarding the commands listed
in this section may then be obtained by using:
>> help topic
try, for example,
>> help help

abs
sqrt
sign
conj
imag
real
angle
cos
sin
tan
cosd
sind
tand
exp
log
log10
cosh
sinh
tanh
acos
acosd
acosh
asin
asind
asinh
atan
atand
atan2
atanh
round
floor
fix
ceil
rem

Absolute value
Square root function
Signum function
Conjugate of a complex number
Imaginary part of a complex
number
Real part of a complex number
Phase angle of a complex number
Cosine function, radians
Sine function, radians
Tangent function, radians
Cosine function, degrees
Sine function, degrees
Tangent function, degrees
Exponential function
Natural logarithm
Logarithm base 10
Hyperbolic cosine function
Hyperbolic sine function
Hyperbolic tangent function
Inverse cosine, result in radians
Inverse cosine, result in degrees
Inverse hyperbolic cosine
Inverse sine, result in radians
Inverse sine, result in degrees
Inverse hyperbolic sine
Inverse tan, result in radians
Inverse tan, result in degrees
Twoargument form of inverse
tan
Inverse hyperbolic tan
Round to nearest integer
Round towards minus infinity
Round towards zero
Round towards plus infinity
Remainder after division

Table 2: Elementary Functions

42

Matrix analysis.
Matrix condition number.
Matrix or vector norm.
Managing commands and functions.
LINPACK reciprocal condition
help
On-line documentation.
estimator.
doc
Load hypertext documentation.
rank
Number of linearly independent
what
Directory listing of M-, MATrows or columns.
and MEX-files.
det
Determinant.
type
List M-file.
trace
Sum of diagonal elements.
lookfor Keyword search through the
null
Null space.
HELP entries.
orth
Orthogonalization.
which
Locate functions and files.
rref
Reduced row echelon form.
demo
Run demos.
Linear equations.
Managing variables and the workspace.
\ and /
Linear equation solution; use
who
List current variables.
help slash.
whos
List current variables, long form.
chol
Cholesky factorization.
load
Retrieve variables from disk.
lu
Factors from Gaussian eliminasave
Save workspace variables to disk.
tion.
clear
Clear variables and functions
inv
Matrix inverse.
from memory.
qr
Orthogonal- triangular decomposize
Size of matrix.
sition.
length
Length of vector.
qrdelete Delete a column from the QR facdisp
Display matrix or text.
torization.
Working with files and the operating system.
qrinsert Insert a column in the QR factorcd
Change current working direcization.
tory.
nnls
Nonnegative least- squares.
dir
Directory listing.
pinv
Pseudoinverse.
delete
Delete file.
lscov
Least squares in the presence of
!
Execute operating system comknown covariance.
mand.
Eigenvalues and singular values.
unix
Execute operating system comeig
Eigenvalues and eigenvectors.
mand & return result.
poly
Characteristic polynomial.
diary
Save text of MATLAB session.
polyeig
Polynomial eigenvalue problem.
Controlling the command window.
hess
Hessenberg form.
cedit
Set command line edit/recall faqz
Generalized eigenvalues.
cility parameters.
rsf2csf
Real block diagonal form to comclc
Clear command window.
plex diagonal form.
home
Send cursor home.
cdf2rdf
Complex diagonal form to real
format
Set output format.
block diagonal form.
echo
Echo commands inside script
schur
Schur decomposition.
files.
balance
Diagonal scaling to improve
more
Control paged output in comeigenvalue accuracy.
mand window.
svd
Singular value decomposition.
Quitting from MATLAB.
Matrix functions.
quit
Terminate MATLAB.
expm
Matrix exponential.
expm1
M- file implementation of expm.
Table 3: General purpose commands.
expm2
Matrix exponential via Taylor series.
expm3
Matrix exponential via eigenvalues and eigenvectors.
logm
Matrix logarithm.
43 sqrtm
Matrix square root.
funm
Evaluate general matrix function.
cond
norm
rcond

Table 4: Matrix functionsnumerical linear algebra.

Graphics & plotting.

Create Figure (graph window).
Clear current figure.
Close figure.
Create axes in tiled positions.
Control axis scaling and appearance.
hold
Hold current graph.
figure
Create figure window.
text
Create text.
print
Save graph to file.
plot
Linear plot.
loglog
Log-log scale plot.
semilogx
Semi-log scale plot.
semilogy
Semi-log scale plot.
Specialized X-Y graphs.
polar
Polar coordinate plot.
bar
Bar graph.
stem
Discrete sequence or stem plot.
stairs
Stairstep plot.
errorbar
Error bar plot.
hist
Histogram plot.
rose
Angle histogram plot.
compass
Compass plot.
feather
Feather plot.
fplot
Plot function.
comet
Comet-like trajectory.
Graph annotation.
title
Graph title.
xlabel
X-axis label.
ylabel
Y-axis label.
text
Text annotation.
gtext
Mouse placement of text.
grid
Grid lines.
contour
Contour plot.
mesh
3-D mesh surface.
surf
3-D shaded surface.
waterfall Waterfall plot.
view
3-D graph viewpoint specification.
zlabel
Z-axis label for 3-D plots.
gtext
Mouse placement of text.
grid
Grid lines.
figure
clf
close
subplot
axis

Table 5: Graphics & plot commands.

44

Index
diary, 7
dice, 35
divide
elementwise, 10
doc, 2

<, 28, 30
<=, 28, 30
==, 28, 30
>, 28, 30
>=, 28, 30
%, 7, 33
, 6
., 7
.*, 9
..., 15, 26
./, 10
.^, 11
:, 5, 6, 18, 21
;, 4

echo, 8
elementary functions, 4
elementwise
divide ./, 10
power .^, 11
product .*, 9, 21
end, 6, 20
error, 35
eye, 19
ezplot, 12

abs, 42
accelerators
keyboard, 8
acosd, 9
and, 29
angle, 42
ans, 3
array, 17
axes, 16, 17
axis, 16
auto, 16
normal, 16
square, 16

false, 28
Fibonnaci, 27, 35
figure, 13
file
function, 33
script, 7
find, 32
fix, 42
fliplr, 23
flipud, 23
floor, 42
floor, 35
for loops, 27
format, 3
compact, 10
long, 11
rat, 10
fraction, 10
full, 23
function mfiles, 33
functions
elementary, 4
trigonometric, 4

ceil, 42
clear, 34
clf, 13
close, 13
colon notation, 5, 21
column vectors, 6
comment (%), 7, 33
complex
conjugate transpose, 6
numbers, 4, 6
complex numbers, 4
components of a vector, 5
conj, 42
contour, 37
cos, 42
cosd, 42
cosd, 9
CPU, 28
cumsum, 28
cursor keys, 8

get, 14
graphs, see plotting
grid, 12, 17, 37
GUI, 40
hard copy, 13
help, 2, 34
hold, 13, 17
if statement, 30

diag, 19

45

labels, 12
line styles, 12
printing, 13
surfaces, 36
title, 12
power
elementwise, 11
printing plots, 13
priorities
in arithmetic, 3
product
elementwise, 9, 21
inner, 21, 22
Pythagorass theorem, 34

imag, 42
inner product, 8, 21, 22
int2str, 27
keyboard accelerators, 8
labels for plots, 12
legend, 13
length, 6
length of a vector, 5, 6, 8
line styles, 12
linspace, 12
logical conditions, 28
lookfor, 2
loops, 27
while, 29

quit, 2

mfiles, 7, 33
matrix, 17
building, 20
diagonal, 19
identity, 19
indexing, 20
orthogonal, 32
size, 18
sparse, 23
special, 18
spy, 20
square, 19
symmetric, 19
tridiagonal, 23
zeros, 18
matrix products, 22
matrixvector products, 21
max, 32, 37
mesh, 37
meshgrid, 37
min, 32, 37
multiplots, 13

rand, 32
random numbers, 32
real, 42
rem, 42
reshape, 18, 39
round, 42
rounding error, 4
rounding numbers, 31
save, 7
script files, 7
semicolon, 4, 17
set, 15
shapes, 13
sign, 42
sin, 42
sind, 42
size, 18
sort, 5
sparse, 23
spdiags, 23
spy, 20
sqrt, 42
str2num, 26
strings, 12
subplot, 14
subscripts, 16
sum, 27, 31
superscripts, 16

nargin, 34
norm of a vector, 9
not, 2830
num2str, 27
numbers, 3
complex, 4
format, 3
random, 32
rounding, 31

timing, 28
title for plots, 12
toc, 28
transposing, 6
tridiagonal, 23
trigonometric functions, 4
true, 28

ones, 18
or, 29
plotting, 12, 17, 36

46

type (list contents of m-file), 8

variable names, 3
vector
column, 6
components, 5
row, 5
what, 8
while loops, 29
whos, 7
xlabel, 12, 37
ylabel, 12
zeros, 18
zoom, 14

47