MATLAB Technical

Computing
Environment

Workspace, Windows, and 2.1

Help
Running MATLAB

Windows: double-click on the MATLAB icon

or select MATLAB from Start/Programs

Display Windows
Command window Enter commands and
data, display results Prompt >> or EDU>>

Graphics (Figure) window Display plots and

graphs Created in response to graphics
commands
M-file editor/debugger window Create and
edit scripts of commands called M-files
Note: when you start Matlab the command
window is the active window and as
commands are executed other windows will
appear and the desired window can be
activated by clicking the mouse in it

Getting Help

help, by itself, lists all help topics

help topic provides help for the specified topic
help command provides help for the specified
command
help help provides information on use of the help
command
helpwin On-line help, separate window for
navigation.
helpdesk Comprehensive hypertext
documentation and troubleshooting
demo Run demonstrations
intro Interactive introduction to MATLAB

Interrupting and
Terminating MATLAB

Ctrl-C (pressing the Ctrl and c keys

simultaneously): Interrupts (aborts)
processing, but does not terminate MATLAB.
quit: Terminates MATLAB
exit: Terminates MATLAB
Select Exit under File menu: Terminates
MATLAB (MS Windows)

Scalar Mathematics 2.2

Scalar mathematics involves operations on

single-valued variables , in this sense
Matlab is similar to a calculator.
(Type help ops on the command window),
this will display a list of operations and
special characters for scalar mathematics
provided in Matlab.

Numbers 2.2.1
MATLAB represents numbers in two forms:
1.
Fixed point: Decimal form, with an optional
decimal point. For example: 2.6349 , -381
, 0.00023
2.
Floating point: Scientific notation, used
when numbers are very large or very small.
Representing m 10e For example: 2.6349
105 is represented as 2.6349e5, the
number has two parts:

mantissa m: fixed point number (signed or

unsigned), with an optional decimal point
(2.6349 in the example above)
exponent e: an integer exponent (signed or
unsigned) (5 in the example).
Mantissa and exponent must be separated by
the letter e (or E).

Operators 2.2.2

Operation
Algebraic form
MATLAB
Addition
a+b
a+b
Subtraction
a-b
a-b
Multiplication
ab
a*b
Right division a b
a/b
Left division
ba
a\b
Exponentiation
ab
a^b
Execute the commands in pages16, 17

Syntax
commands must be written using the correct
syntax (rules for forming commands).
When a syntax error is made the command
will not be executed and an error message
appears on the command line telling us what
the error is.
Examples of these messages( missing
operator, undefined variable)

Precedence of operations (order of

evaluation)
1.Parentheses, innermost first
2.Exponentiation (^), left to right
3.Multiplication (*) and division (/ or \) with equal
precedence, left to right
4.Addition (+) and subtraction (-) with equal
precedence, left to right
When operators in an expression have the
same precedence the operations are carried
out from left to right.

Variables and 2.2.3

Assignment Statements
When assigning variable names to numerical values in
Matlab the rules are:
Must start with a letter
May consist only of the letters a-z, digits 0-9, and the
underscore character (_)
May be as long as you would like, but MATLAB only
recognizes the first 31 characters
Is case sensitive: items, Items, itEms, and ITEMS are
all different variable names.

Assignment statement
When a command of the form:
variable = number
variable = expression
Is executed the expression is evaluated,
producing a number that is assigned to the
variable. The variable name and its value are
displayed.
If a variable name is not specified, MATLAB
will assign the result to the default variable
(ans)

Semicolon(;) at the end of a line tells

MATLAB to evaluate the line but not to display
the results (execute example 2.1)

Matlab workspace: Variables created in the

Command window are said to reside in the
MATLAB workspace or Base workspace. The
workspace retains the values of these
variables, allowing them to be used in
subsequent expressions.
If an expression contains variables, the value
of the expression can be computed only if the
values of the variables have been previously
computed and still reside in the workspace,
otherwise a syntax error is returned.
Do examples on pages 19, 20.

Precedence of operations involving variables

Consider the computation of the area of a trapezoid
whose parallel sides are of length b1 and b2 and
whose height is h:
A = (b1 + b2)h
2
MATLAB statement:
;area = 0.5*(base_1 + base_2)*height
Deleting the parentheses:
;area = 0.5*base_1 + base_2*height
This would compute
A = b1/2+ b2h
The incorrect result would be computed, but there
would be no error messages, as the command has
been written in correct MATLAB syntax.

Style: writing arithmetic expressions

Use parentheses often:
For example to convert temperature from
Fahrenheit to celsius, we use
TC =(5/9) (TF - 32)
This is computed correctly by the MATLAB
command: TC = 5/9*(TF-32)
MATLAB would first compute TF-32, replacing
it with a value. Then 5/9 would be computed
and this value would multiply the previously
computed value of TF-32.

 Use multiple statements Consider the

equation:
H(s) =
s2 + 4s + 13
s3 - 2s2 + 4s + 5
MATLAB commands:
numerator = s^2 + 4*s + 13;
denominator = s^3 - 2*s^2 + 4*s + 5;
H = numerator/denominator;

Special variables:

ans: default variable name

pi: ratio of circle circumference to its

diameter, = 3.1415926...

eps: smallest amount by which two

numbers can differ

inf or Inf : infinity, e.g. 1/0

nan or NaN : not-a-number, e.g. 0/0

date: current date in a character string

format, such as 19-Mar-1998.

flops: count of floating-point operations.

Commands involving variables:

1.
who: lists the names of defined variables
2.
whos: lists the names and sizes of defined
variables
3.
clear: clears all variables, resets default
values of special variables
4.
clear var: clears variable var
5.
clc: clears the command window, homes
the cursor (moves the prompt to the top
line), but does not affect variables.

6. clf: clears the current figure and thus clears

the graph window.
7.
more on: enables paging of the output in
the command window.
8.
more off: disables paging of the output in
the command window.
9.
When more is enabled and output is being
paged, advance to the next line of output by
pressing Enter ; get the next page of output
by pressing the spacebar. Press q to exit
out of displaying the current item.

Do example 2.2

Redefining variables
A variable may be redefined simply by
executing a new assignment statement
involving the variable.
previously issued commands involving the
redefined variable wont be automatically
reevaluated.
Do example 2.3

Command reuse and editing

Commands can be reused and editted
using the following operations:

Press the up arrow cursor key to scrolls backward through

previous commands. Press Enter to execute the selected
command.
The down arrow cursor key scrolls forward through commands
The left and right arrow cursor keys move within a command at
the MATLAB prompt, allowing the command to be edited.
The mouse can also be used to reposition the command cursor,
by positioning the mouse cursor and pressing the left mouse
button.
Other standard editing keys, such as delete (Del) , backspace ,
Home , and End perform their commonly assigned tasks.
Once a scrolled or edited command is acceptable, pressing
Enter with the cursor anywhere in the command tells MATLAB to
process it.

Punctuation and Comments

Semicolon (;) at the end of a command suppresses
the display of the result.
Commas and semicolons can be used to place
multiple commands on one line, with commas
producing display of results, semicolons supressing.
Percent sign (%) begins a comment, with all text up
to the next line ignored by MATLAB
Three periods (. . .) at the end of a command
indicates that the command continues on the next
line. A continuation cannot be given in the middle of
a variable
Do example 2.4

Basic Mathematical 2.3

Functions

abs(x)
Absolute value |x|
sign(x)
Sign, returns -1 if x < 0, 0 if x = 0, 1 if x> 0
exp(x)
Exponential ex
log(x)
Natural logarithm ln x
log10(x) Common (base 10) logarithm log10 x
sqrt(x) Square rootx
rem(x,y) Remainder of x/y. For example, rem(100,21) is 16. Also
called the modulus function.
For a complete list print: help elfun
Do examples 2.5, 2.6

Computational 2.4
Limitations

methods for representing numbers in digital

computers:
1.Fixed-Point Numbers: All computer
instructions and data are represented and
stored in binary (base 2) form. In the
representation of fixed-point numbers, the
value of each digit in the number depends on
its position relative to the fixed decimal point.

For example the integer value 53 in base 10 is

represented by the binary or base 2 value 00110101,
denoted by:
5310 = 001101012
In base 10, this means
5310 = 5 x 101 + 3 x 100
Similarly,
001101012 = 0 x27 + 0 x26 + 1 X25 + 1 x24 + 0 x23 + 1
X22 + 0 x21 + 1 x20
= 3210 + 1610 + 410 + 110
Thus, each bit position represents an increasing power
of 2, beginning with 20 on the right.

Floating-Point Numbers: Floating-point numbers are

used on computers to approximate a subset of the real
numbers.
The set of base 10 floating-point numbers consists of every
number that can be written in the form
+m x 10e, where
m (the mantissa) is in the range 0 < m < 10 and contains p
digits (p is called the precision).
e (the exponent) is an integer that lies between emin (the
minimum exponent) and emax (the
maximum exponent).
Computers use base 2 numbers of the form +m x 2e. In
MATLAB, when you enter a number in base 10, it is converted
to base 2. Similarly, a base 2 result will converted to base 10
before being displayed.
2.

To represent a real number x with a floating-point number, we first

round x to the closest real number y that has a p-digit mantissa.
There are then two possibilities:
If y is a member of the set of floating-point numbers, we say that
x is represented by y in the floating-point number system. The
absolute difference |x y|is called the roundoff error.
If y is not a member of the set of floating-point numbers, we say
that x is not representable in the floating-point number system. This
can happen if x is too large, which is called overflow error; or if the
absolute value of x is too small, which is called an underflow error.
Two MATLAB functions, realmax and realmin, display the largest
and the smallest numbers, respectively, that can be represented.
Execute the commands in pages 28,29.

2.5 Display Options

MATLAB follows several rules in displaying
numerical results.
Integers: Displayed as integers, as long as
they contain 9 digits or less. For 10 digits or
more, they are displayed in scientific notation .
Short fixed point: The default is to display
as a decimal number with four digits to the right
of the decimal point, and up to three digits to
the left of the decimal point, if this is possible.
This is known as the short format.

Short floating point: When the result has more than

three digits to the left of the decimal point, it is
displayed in scientific notation (called the short e
format). Scientific notation expresses a value as a
number between 1 and 10 multiplied by a power of 10.
(Execute commands on pages 29,30).
The default behavior can be changed by specifying a
different numerical format .
The table below indicates the affect of changing the
display format for the variable ratio, computed as:
>> ratio = 610./12
ratio =
50.8333

MATLAB Command
ratio
Comments
format short
50.8333
4 decimal digits
format long 50.83333333333334
14 decimal digits
format short e
5.0833e+001
4 decimal digits plus exponent
format long e
5.083333333333334e+001 14 decimal digits plus
exponent
format short g
50.8333
better of format short or format
short e (default), switching for ans > 1000
format long g
5.083333333333334e+001 better of format long or
format long e
format bank 50.83 2
decimal digits
format +
+
positive, negative, or zero

The display formats do not change the internal representation of

a number; only the display changes.
The internal representation is rounded when the display is
shortened.
format compact suppresses many of the line feeds that appear
between displays and allows more lines of information to be seen
together on the screen. The command format loose can be used
to return to the less compact display mode.
Execute commands on page 31

Displaying Values and Text

From the prompt:
As demonstrated in previous examples, by
entering a variable name, an assignment
statement, or an expression at the MATLAB
prompt, without a semicolon, the result will be
displayed, proceeded by the variable name (or
by ans if only an expression was entered).
1.

2. disp:
There are two general forms of the command disp that
are useful in displaying results and annotating
:them with units or other information

disp(variable): Displays value of variable without

displaying the variable name.

disp(string): Displays string by stripping off the

single quotes and echoing the characters between
the quotes.
String: A group of keyboard characters enclosed in
single quote marks (). The quote marks indicate
that the enclosed characters are to represent
.ASCII text

3.fprintf:

The fprintf function provides more control over the

display than is provided with disp. In addition to
providing the display of variable values and text, it can
be used to control the format to be used in the display,
including the specification to skip to a new line. The
general form of this command is:
fprintf(format string, list of variables)
The format string contains the text to be displayed (in
the form of a character string enclosed in single
quotes) and it may also contain format specifiers to
control how the variables listed are embedded in the
format string.

The format specifiers include:

w.d%f Display as fixed point or decimal notation (defaults to
short), with a width of w characters (including the decimal point
and possible minus sign, with d decimal places. Spaces are filled
in from the left if necessary. Set d to 0 if you dont want any
decimal places, for example %5.0f. Include leading zeros if you
want leading zeroes in the display, for example %06.0f.
w.d%e Display using scientific notation (defaults to short e), with
a width of w characters (including the decimal point, a possible
minus sign, and five for the exponent), with d digits in the
mantissa after the decimal point. The mantissa is always
adjusted to be less than 1.
w.d%g Display using the shorter of tt short or short e format, with
width w and d decimal places.
\n
Newline (skip to beginning of next line)

Accuracy is a measure of the nearness of a

value to the correct or true value.
Precision refers to the repeatability of a
measurement, this how close successive
measurements are to each other.
Errors: All measurements will have some
degree of error. Identifiable and correctable
errors are called systematic. Accidental or
other nonidentifiable errors are called
random.

Roundoff Errors: Rounding off a number to n

decimal places, following the rule described in the
preceding section, produces an error whose
absolute value is not larger than 0.5 10-n.
error = true value - calculated value
This is also called the absolute error, although the
qualifier absolute may be used to indicate the
absolute value of the error defined above.
The error can be compare to the true value by
calculating the relative error
relative error = error/(true value)
Do example in page 35,36