MATLAB Basics September 22, 2021

1 Getting Matlab

Matlab is available for free for all UCSB students and staff. Simply go to
http://www.software.ucsb.edu/info/matlab and follow the instructions.

2 Using the Command Line

2.1 Simple Math

When you open Matlab, the first thing you’ll usually see is the command line, which looks something
like this:
>>
You can type commands here, and Matlab will execute them. For example, try
>> 1+2
ans = 3
If you put a semicolon (;) at the end of the line, Matlab will not print the output to the screen:
(this can be useful if the output takes up a lot of space, like if it’s a large matrix)
>> 1+2;
Matlab has many built-in math operators, a few are (+ - * / ^) for add, subtract, multiply,
divide, and raise-to-power. Matlab follows all the normal order-of-operations rules, and you can
use parenthesis to tell it exactly what order to do things.

2.2 Creating Variables

Just like in any programming language, you can store numbers in variables. Creating a variable is
very easy: say we want to store the number 5 in a variable named myVar. The code for this is
>> myVar = 5;
Then we can use myVar just like a number in Matlab commands:
>> myVar + 1
ans = 6
>> myVar^2
ans = 25

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3 Working With Vectors

3.1 Creating Vectors

Matlab’s true power is in its ability to do computations involving vectors and matrices. There are
a number of ways to create vectors; the most straightforward is to use square brackets:
>> lost = [4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42];
In the above, we used commas (,) to separate the elements of the vector. In Matlab, this gives us
a row vector. If we use semicolons (;) instead, we get a column vector:
>> fib = [1; 1; 2; 3; 5; 8];
If you want to transpose a column vector to a row vector (or vice-versa), use an apostrophe (’):
>> fib’
ans = 1 1 2 3 5 8
Note that this did not transpose the fib vector in place, it merely printed a transposed version of
it. In memory, fib is still stored as a column vector. This is true of most Matlab operations:
most operations on vectors return a copy of the vector with the operation performed.
You can also create a matrix in the same way by combining commas and semicolons:
>> myMatrix = [1, 2; 3, 4]
1 2
ans =
3 4
You can multiply vectors and matrices together as long as their inner dimensions match; so since
fib is 6x1 and lost is 1x6, you can multiply them together like
>> lost * fib
ans = 541
However, you can’t execute lost*lost, because the rules of matrix algebra don’t allow you to
multiply a 1x6 with a 1x6. If you want to multiply them together elementwise, i.e., multiply the
first two elements together, then the second two, and so on, you have to use the special (.) symbol:
>> lost.*lost
ans = 16 64 225 256 529 1764
The (.) symbol executes an operation on each element of the vector or matrix, so if we wanted to
calculate the inverse of every element of myMatrix, we would write
>> 1./myMatrix
1.0000 0.5000
ans =
0.3333 0.2500

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3.2 The colon (:) operator

One quick way to make some simple vectors is to use the colon. There are two ways to use colon.
The first is like this:
>> sequence = 1:5
ans = 1 2 3 4 5
In this usage, the colon operator creates a vector that is a sequence of integers from 1 to 5. You
can also use the colon to tell Matlab how much space to put between each element of the vector:
>> anotherSequence = 0:0.2:1
ans = 0.0000 0.2000 0.4000 0.6000 0.8000 1.0000
Using it this way, it says “create a vector starting at 0, with elements spaced 0.2 apart, all the way
up to 1”. This can be useful for many things!

3.3 Indexing Vectors

If you want to select a particular element from a vector, use parenthesis (note: in Matlab, vectors
are indexed starting with the number 1. This is unusual in programming languages; most other
languages number the first element 0). To get the 6th element from fib, type
>> fib(6)
ans = 8
You use the same syntax to modify an element of a vector. To change element 1 of the lost vector
to 0, I write
>> lost(1) = 0
ans = 0 8 15 16 23 42
Suppose you want the last element of a vector, but you don’t know how long it is. Then you can
use the end keyword:
>> lost(end)
ans = 42
To select a range of elements in a vector, you can use the colon operator. For example, if we want
elements 2 through 4 from lost, type
>> lost(2:4)
ans = 8 15 16
If you want elements 1, 3, and 5 from lost, type
>> lost([1,3,5])
ans = 0 15 23

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3.4 Indexing Matrices

You can get sub-vectors and elements from matrices in much the same way you can from vectors.
Just remember that Matlab uses the standard row-index-first, then column-index-second conven-
tion. So if we want the upper-left element (1st row, 1st column) from the myMatrix object we
created earlier, we type
>> myMatrix(1,1)
ans = 1
If we want the bottom-left element (2nd row, 1st column), type
>> myMatrix(2,1)
ans = 3
If you want to pull the 1st row out of a matrix, you use the colon (:) operator to tell Matlab to
give you the 1st row and “all columns”:
>> myMatrix(1,:)
ans = 1 2
Likewise, if you want the 2nd column, you tell Matlab to give you “all rows” and the 2nd column:
>> myMatrix(:,2)
ans = 2
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4 m-Files

The command line is great if you want to get an answer to a simple math problem quickly, but
usually you’ll want to run a bunch of commands all in a row using a script file. To create a script
file, go to the file menu in Matlab and choose new>Script. This will open up a blank window for
you to write a script file. Since Matlab saves it with the extension *.m, it’s called an “m-file.”
An m-file is just a list of commands; when you execute the file, Matlab just executes the commands
in the order you put them in the file. You can run the file either by pressing the green arrow button
at the top of the editor window or by typing the filename (without the .m) into the command line.

5 Important Functions

5.1 If/Else Statements

Often you’ll want to run code only when a particular statement is true. Suppose we are pumping
water into a tank and we want to turn the pump off when the tank level is over 100. We have a
variable tankLevel that tells us the tank level, and a variable pumpSpeed that we can change to

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tell our pump how fast to run. The following code would shut the pump off (set the speed to 0)
when the level is over 100, runs the pump slowly (a speed of 1) if the tank is between 90 and 100,
and runs the pump fast (a speed of 2) if the tank is below 90:

if tankLevel > 100

pumpSpeed = 0;
elseif tankLevel > 90
pumpSpeed = 1;
else
pumpSpeed = 2;
end

Note that in an if-statement, you don’t actually need an elseif or even an else, but you always
need an end. You can also put as many elseif-statements as you want. For example, in the above
statement, we could have set a different speed when the level is between 80 and 90.
You can use many different logical operators in an if-statement:

ˆ (~a) means “not a”

ˆ (a && b) means “a and b”

ˆ (a || b) means “a or b”

ˆ (a == b) means “a equal to b”

ˆ (a ~= b) means “a not equal to b”

ˆ (a >= b) means “a greater than or equal to b”

ˆ (a <= b) means “a less than or equal to b”

5.2 For Loops

Sometimes, you want to repeat the same code a particular number of times. If you know how many
times to repeat, use a for-loop. For example, suppose you want to add up all the numbers from 1
to 10. One way to do this would be like so:

result = 0;
for i = 1:10
result = result + i;
end

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First, we create the variable result and set it to 0. This will be the place we store our sum as
we compute it. Next, the for-loop starts. When we write “for i = 1:10,” we’re saying “create
a temporary variable called i. The first time the loop runs, let i = 1; the second time, let i = 2,
and so on all the way up to i = 10. Then, each time the loop repeats, we add i to result, and in
this way we add together all the integers from 1 to 10.

5.3 While Loops

Sometimes you want to repeat the same code many times, but you don’t know exactly how many
times. In this case, you may want to try a while-loop. This type of loop will run over and over
until a particular condition is met.
For example, suppose you wanted to find out how many powers of 2 it takes to reach 1 million.
One way to do it would be like this:

count = 0;
powers = 0;
while (2^powers) < 1000000
count = count + 1;
powers = powers + 1;
end

First, we set our count and power variables to 0. Each time the loop runs, we’ll increase them by
1. When we write “while (2^powers) < 1000000,” we’re saying “run this loop if 2 to the power
of powers is less than 1 million.” Then we increase powers each time the loop runs, so eventually
the loop will stop.
Be careful with this kind of loop, because you could create an infinite loop by mistake. In this
example, if we forgot to write code that makes powers increase with each loop, we’d be stuck with
(2^powers) = 0 for all time and the loop would never terminate. If you get stuck in an infinite
loop, Matlab may not tell you - your code will just sit there and never stop. You can always stop
it manually by pressing ctrl-c.

5.4 Max & Min

When you have an array of numbers and you want to know the minimum or maximum value that
shows up, the min and max function may be useful. Suppose we have a vector weather that tells
us the temperature in Santa Barbara on each day of the month. If we want to find the highest
temperature, hotTemp, that occurred that month, we simply use hotTemp = max(weather). If we
additionally want to know what day of the month was the hottest, hotDay, we can access both

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these outputs of the max function by writing [hotTemp, hotDay] = max(weather). If we wanted
the coldest day, we would simply replace the max with min.
Additionally, say we have two vectors weatherA and weatherB, that record the temperature of
two thermometers each day and we want to know the hottest temperature recorded on either
thermometer each day hotThermom. The max function takes care of this for us by allowing us to
enter both vectors as inputs, i.e., hotThermom = max(weatherA,weatherB). Be careful though,
you can only do this with two vectors at a time.
Now, imagine we have a matrix weatherMap, where the element weatherMap(i,j) says the weather
in city i on day j. To find the hottest day in each city, we can use the max function by finding the
maximum in a given dimension. Because the weather on each day is enumerated by the columns
of weatherMap, and noting that columns are dimension 2, we can get a vector of the hottest
temperature in each city by writing hotTempCity = max(weatherMap,[],2). Again, to find the
coldest we can use min.
Other useful functions are mean, median, mode, and var among others.

6 Writing Your Own Functions

Often you’ll want to write code that you can use over and over in a modular way. In Matlab, we
do this with functions. Here is a simple function that takes in a number and returns that number
plus one:

function result = increment(a)

result = a+1;
end

A function declaration always starts with the keyword function

followed by <output> = <functionName>(<input>).
Typically, you give each function its own m-file, and keep it in the same directory as the rest of
your m-files. Make sure that the filename is the same as the function name, so increment.m would
have to be the name of the file containing our increment function. Then you can call the function
either from the command line or from a script file in the same directory simply by executing
increment(a).

7 To learn more, or What to do when you’re stuck

Matlab has a tutorial program at https://matlabacademy.mathworks.com.

Other than that, here are some powerful tools you can use if you get stuck:

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1. help. Suppose you know that there is a Matlab function called plot, but you don’t know how
to use it. At the command line, just type help plot and Matlab will give you the contents of
the help file. (of course, if you don’t know the name of a command, Google is usually pretty
helpful.)

2. Debug Mode. You can use a built-in tool called debug mode to look inside your code while
it’s operating. You may have to play around with it to figure out how your particular version
of Matlab works, but essentially, debug mode lets you tell a script or function to pause when
it gets to a particular line of code.

3. Check out http://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab/videos.html for videos explain-

ing everything about Matlab.

4. If you have any other questions, just type why into the command line.

8 Exercises

1. Write a script that computes the first 100 Fibonacci numbers. The Fibonacci numbers are
computed like this: the next number is the sum of the previous two numbers. So if the first
two numbers are {1, 1}, then the third number is 2 = 1 + 1, the fourth number is 3 = 1 + 2,
the fifth is 5 = 2 + 3, and so on: {1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, . . .}. Formally, we say that for each i,
fi+1 = fi + fi−1 .

2. Write a function called myFactorial(n) that takes in one argument, n, and returns n! (that
is, n-factorial). Recall that n! is the product of all the integers up to n; so 5! = 1·2·3·4·5 = 120.
You can use the built-in MATLAB function factorial(n) to check your work, but don’t call
factorial(n) in your function.

3. Run the command testVec = rand(1000,1);. This will create a vector with 1000 random
numbers (between 0 and 1). Write a function that takes in this vector and returns the smallest
element. You can use the built-in function min() to check your work, but don’t call min() in
your function.

4. Now, run the command testMat = rand(1000,1000);. This creates a 1000x1000 matrix
full of random numbers. Write a function that takes in this matrix and returns the smallest
element.

5. Write a function like in Exercise 4, but this time make it so it can find the smallest element
in a matrix of any size. Hint: look up help on the built-in function size().

6. Write a function [px,py,pnorm] = myData(x,y) that takes in two vectors of the same size
x and y, that represent points in an xy-plane, and outputs three points as 2x1 vectors: the
point with the
plarges x value, the point with the largest y value, and the point with the larges
2-norm, i.e., x2 + y 2 . Feel free to use the built in max function.

7. To test yourself more, check out the exercises at

http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/maneval/help211/exercises.html
Some of these are quite advanced.