Computation
Visualization
Programming
Getting Started with MATLAB
Version 6
MATLAB
?
The Language of Technical Computing
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Getting Started with MATLAB
? COPYRIGHT 1984 - 2002 by The MathWorks, Inc.
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Printing History: December 1996 First printing For MATLAB 5
May 1997 Second printing For MATLAB 5.1
September 1998 Third printing For MATLAB 5.3
September 2000 Fourth printing Revised for MATLAB 6 (Release 12)
June 2001 Online only Minor update for MATLAB 6.1,
Release 12.1
July 2002 Online only Revised for MATLAB 6.5 (Release 13)
Contents
1
Introduction
What Is MATLAB? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2
The MATLAB System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3
MATLAB Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4
MATLAB Online Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4
2
Development Environment
Starting and Quitting MATLAB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2
Starting MATLAB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2
Quitting MATLAB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2
MATLAB Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3
Desktop Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5
Command Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5
Start Button and Launch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-7
Help Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-7
Current Directory Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-10
Workspace Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-12
Editor/Debugger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-14
Profiler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-15
Other Development Environment Features . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-16
i
ii Contents
Manipulating Matrices
3
Matrices and Magic Squares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2
Entering Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3
sum, transpose, and diag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-4
Subscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-6
The Colon Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-7
The magic Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8
Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-10
Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-10
Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-10
Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-11
Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-11
Examples of Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-13
Working with Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-14
Generating Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-14
The load Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-15
M-Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-15
Concatenation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-16
Deleting Rows and Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-17
More About Matrices and Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-18
Linear Algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-18
Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-21
Multivariate Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-24
Scalar Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-25
Logical Subscripting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-26
The find Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-27
Controlling Command Window Input and Output . . . . . . . 3-28
The format Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-28
Suppressing Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-30
Entering Long Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-30
Command Line Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-30
Graphics
4
Basic Plotting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2
Creating a Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2
Multiple Data Sets in One Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3
Specifying Line Styles and Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4
Plotting Lines and Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5
Imaginary and Complex Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6
Adding Plots to an Existing Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-7
Figure Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8
Multiple Plots in One Figure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9
Controlling the Axes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10
Axis Labels and Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-12
Saving a Figure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-13
Editing Plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-14
Interactive Plot Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-14
Using Functions to Edit Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-14
Using Plot Editing Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-15
Using the Property Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-16
Mesh and Surface Plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-18
Visualizing Functions of Two Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-18
Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-22
Printing Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-24
Handle Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-26
Graphics Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-26
Setting Object Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-28
Finding the Handles of Existing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-31
Graphics User Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-33
Graphical User Interface Design Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-33
Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-34
Erase Mode Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-34
Creating Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-35
iii
iv Contents
Programming with MATLAB
5
Flow Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2
if . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2
switch and case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3
for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-4
while . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5
continue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5
break . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-6
Other Data Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-7
Multidimensional Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-7
Cell Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-9
Characters and Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-11
Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-14
Scripts and Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-17
Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-18
Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-19
Global Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-21
Passing String Arguments to Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-21
The eval Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-23
Vectorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-23
Preallocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-24
Function Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-24
Function Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-25
Demonstration Programs Included with MATLAB . . . . . . 5-28
Matrix Demonstration Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-29
Numeric Demonstration Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-30
Graphics Demonstration Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-31
Language Demonstration Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-32
Differential Equations Demonstration Programs . . . . . . . . . . 5-33
Automation Client Interface (COM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-34
Gallery Demonstration Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-34
Miscellaneous Demonstration Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-36
Getting More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-36
1
Introduction
What Is MATLAB? (p. 1-2) Provides an overview of the main features of MATLAB.
MATLAB Documentation (p. 1-4) Describes the MATLAB documentation, including online
and printed user guides and reference materials.
1 Introduction
1-2
What Is MATLAB?
MATLAB
?
is a high-performance language for technical computing. It
integrates computation, visualization, and programming in an easy-to-use
environment where problems and solutions are expressed in familiar
mathematical notation. Typical uses include
? Math and computation
Algorithm development
Data acquisition
Modeling, simulation, and prototyping
Data analysis, exploration, and visualization
Scientific and engineering graphics
Application development, including graphical user interface building
MATLAB is an interactive system whose basic data element is an array that
does not require dimensioning. This allows you to solve many technical
computing problems, especially those with matrix and vector formulations, in
a fraction of the time it would take to write a program in a scalar noninteractive
language such as C or Fortran.
The name MATLAB stands for matrix laboratory. MATLAB was originally
written to provide easy access to matrix software developed by the LINPACK
and EISPACK projects. Today, MATLAB engines incorporate the LAPACK
and BLAS libraries, embedding the state of the art in software for matrix
computation.
MATLAB has evolved over a period of years with input from many users. In
university environments, it is the standard instructional tool for introductory
and advanced courses in mathematics, engineering, and science. In industry,
MATLAB is the tool of choice for high-productivity research, development, and
analysis.
MATLAB features a family of add-on application-specific solutions called
toolboxes. Very important to most users of MATLAB, toolboxes allow you to
learn and apply specialized technology. Toolboxes are comprehensive
collections of MATLAB functions (M-files) that extend the MATLAB
environment to solve particular classes of problems. Areas in which toolboxes
are available include signal processing, control systems, neural networks,
fuzzy logic, wavelets, simulation, and many others.
What Is MATLAB?
The MATLAB System
The MATLAB system consists of five main parts:
Development Environment. This is the set of tools and facilities that help you use
MATLAB functions and files. Many of these tools are graphical user interfaces.
It includes the MATLAB desktop and Command Window, a command history,
an editor and debugger, and browsers for viewing help, the workspace, files,
and the search path.
The MATLAB Mathematical Function Library. This is a vast collection of computational
algorithms ranging from elementary functions like sum, sine, cosine, and
complex arithmetic, to more sophisticated functions like matrix inverse, matrix
eigenvalues, Bessel functions, and fast Fourier transforms.
The MATLAB Language. This is a high-level matrix/array language with control
flow statements, functions, data structures, input/output, and object-oriented
programming features. It allows both “programming in the small” to rapidly
create quick and dirty throw-away programs, and “programming in the large”
to create complete large and complex application programs.
Graphics. MATLAB has extensive facilities for displaying vectors and matrices
as graphs, as well as annotating and printing these graphs. It includes
high-level functions for two-dimensional and three-dimensional data
visualization, image processing, animation, and presentation graphics. It also
includes low-level functions that allow you to fully customize the appearance of
graphics as well as to build complete graphical user interfaces on your
MATLAB applications.
The MATLAB Application Program Interface (API). This is a library that allows you to
write C and Fortran programs that interact with MATLAB. It includes
facilities for calling routines from MATLAB (dynamic linking), calling
MATLAB as a computational engine, and for reading and writing MAT-files.
1-3
1 Introduction
1-4
MATLAB Documentation
MATLAB provides extensive documentation, in both printed and online
format, to help you learn about and use all of its features. If you are a new user,
start with this book, Getting Started with MATLAB, which introduces you to
MATLAB. It covers all the primary MATLAB features at a high level, including
many examples to help you to learn the material quickly:
Chapter 2, “Development Environment”—Introduces the MATLAB
development environment, including information about tools and the
MATLAB desktop.
Chapter 3, “Manipulating Matrices”—Introduces how to use MATLAB to
generate matrices and perform mathematical operations on matrices.
Chapter 4, “Graphics”—Introduces MATLAB graphic capabilities, including
information about plotting data, annotating graphs, and working with
images.
Chapter 5, “Programming with MATLAB”—Describes how to use the
MATLAB language to create scripts and functions, and manipulate data
structures, such as cell arrays and multidimensional arrays. This section
also provides an overview of the demo programs included with MATLAB.
To find more detailed information about any of these topics, use the MATLAB
online help. The online help provides task-oriented and reference information
about MATLAB features. The MATLAB documentation is also available in
printed form and in PDF format.
MATLAB Online Help
To view the online documentation, select MATLAB Help from the Help menu
in MATLAB. For more information about using the online documentation, see
“Help Browser” on page 2-7.
For MATLAB, the documentation is organized into these main topics:
Development Environment—Provides complete information on the
MATLAB desktop.
Mathematics—Describes how to use MATLAB mathematical and statistical
capabilities.
MATLAB Documentation
Programming and Data Types—Describes how to create scripts and
functions using the MATLAB language.
Graphics—Describes how to plot your data using MATLAB graphics
capabilities.
3-D Visualization—Introduces how to use views, lighting, and transparency
to achieve more complex graphic effects than can be achieved using the basic
plotting functions.
Creating Graphical User Interfaces—Describes how to use MATLAB
graphical user interface layout tools.
External Interfaces/API—Describes MATLAB interfaces to C and Fortran
programs, Java classes and objects, COM objects, data files, serial port I/O,
and DDE.
In addition to the above documentation, MATLAB documentation includes the
following reference material:
Functions - By Category—Lists all the core MATLAB functions. Each
function has a reference page that provides the syntax, description,
mathematical algorithm (where appropriate), and related functions.
You can also access any function reference page using the “Functions -
Alphabetical List”.
Handle Graphics Property Browser—Enables you to easily access
descriptions of graphics object properties. For more information about
MATLAB graphics, see “Handle Graphics” on page 4-26
External Interfaces/API Reference—Covers those functions used by the
MATLAB external interfaces, providing information on syntax in the calling
language, description, arguments, return values, and examples.
MATLAB online documentation also includes
Examples—An index of major examples included in the documentation.
Release Notes—Introduces new features and identifies known problems in
the current release.
Printable Documentation—Provides access to the PDF versions of the
documentation, which are suitable for printing.
1-5
1 Introduction
1-6
2
Development
Environment
The Development Environment covers starting and quitting MATLAB, and the tools and functions
that help you to work with MATLAB variables and files, including the MATLAB desktop. For more
information about the topics covered here, see the corresponding topics in “Development
Environment”, which is available in the online as well as in the printed manual, Using MATLAB.
Starting and Quitting MATLAB
(p. 2-2)
Start and quit MATLAB and perform operations upon
startup and shutdown.
MATLAB Desktop (p. 2-3) The graphical user interface to MATLAB.
Desktop Tools (p. 2-5) Use the Command Window for running functions and
entering variables, Start button for launching tools,
demos, and documentation, Help browser for accessing
documentation, Current Directory browser for accessing
files, Workspace browser for viewing variables,
Editor/Debugger for modifying MATLAB program files
(M-files), and Profiler for optimizing M-file performance.
Other Development Environment
Features (p. 2-16)
Import and export data, improve M-file performance,
interface with source control systems, and access
MATLAB from Microsoft Word using the MATLAB
Notebook feature.
2 Development Environment
2-2
Starting and Quitting MATLAB
Starting MATLAB
On Windows platforms, to start MATLAB, double-click the MATLAB shortcut
icon on your Windows desktop.
On UNIX platforms, to start MATLAB, type matlab at the operating system
prompt.
After starting MATLAB, the MATLAB desktop opens—see “MATLAB
Desktop” on page 2-3.
You can change the directory in which MATLAB starts, define startup options
including running a script upon startup, and reduce startup time in some
situations. For more information, see the documentation for starting MATLAB.
Quitting MATLAB
To end your MATLAB session, select Exit MATLAB from the File menu in the
desktop, or type quit in the Command Window. To execute specified functions
each time MATLAB quits, such as saving the workspace, you can create and
run a finish.m script.
MATLAB Desktop
MATLAB Desktop
When you start MATLAB, the MATLAB desktop appears, containing tools
(graphical user interfaces) for managing files, variables, and applications
associated with MATLAB.
The first time MATLAB starts, the desktop appears as shown in the following
illustration.
View or change
current
directory.
View or use previously run functions.
Enter
MATLAB
functions.
Close window.
Drag the separator bar to resize windows.
Click to move window
outside of desktop.
Get help.
Expand to view
documentation, demos, and
tools for your products.
Use tab to go to Current
Directory browser.
2-3
2 Development Environment
2-4
You can change the way your desktop looks by opening, closing, moving, and
resizing the tools in it. Use the View menu to open or close the tools. You can
also move tools outside the desktop or move them back into the desktop
(docking). All the desktop tools provide common features such as context
menus and keyboard shortcuts.
You can specify certain characteristics for the desktop tools by selecting
Preferences from the File menu. For example, you can specify the font
characteristics for Command Window text. For more information, click the
Help button in the Preferences dialog box.
Desktop Tools
Desktop Tools
This section provides an introduction to the MATLAB desktop tools. You can
also use MATLAB functions to perform most of the features found in the
desktop tools. The tools are
“Command Window”
“Command History”
“Start Button and Launch Pad”
“Help Browser”
“Current Directory Browser”
“Workspace Browser”
“Array Editor”
“Editor/Debugger”
“Profiler”
Command Window
Use the Command Window to enter variables and run functions and M-files.
For more information on controlling input and output, see “Controlling
Command Window Input and Output” on page 3-28.
Type functions and
variables at the
MATLAB prompt.
MATLAB displays the
results.
2-5
2 Development Environment
2-6
Command History
Statements you enter in the Command Window are logged in the Command
History. In the Command History, you can view previously run statements,
and copy and execute selected statements.
To save the input and output from a MATLAB session to a file, use the diary
function.
Running External Programs
You can run external programs from the MATLAB Command Window. The
exclamation point character ! is a shell escape and indicates that the rest of the
input line is a command to the operating system. This is useful for invoking
utilities or running other programs without quitting MATLAB. On Linux, for
example,
!emacs magik.m
invokes an editor called emacs for a file named magik.m. When you quit the
external program, the operating system returns control to MATLAB.
Timestamp marks the
start of each session.
Select one or more lines
and right-click to copy,
evaluate, or create an
M-file from the selection.
Desktop Tools
Start Button and Launch Pad
The MATLAB Start button provides easy access to tools, demos, and
documentation. Just click the button to see the options.
The Launch Pad provides similar access in a tree view.
Help Browser
Use the Help browser to search and view documentation and demos for all your
MathWorks products. The Help browser is a Web browser integrated into the
MATLAB desktop that displays HTML documents.
2-7
2 Development Environment
2-8
To open the Help browser, click the help button in the toolbar, or type
helpbrowser in the Command Window.
The Help browser consists of two panes, the Help Navigator, which you use to
find information, and the display pane, where you view the information.
Tabs in the Help Navigator pane provide different ways to find documentation and demos.
Drag the separator bar to adjust the width of the panes.
View documentation in the display pane.
Use the close box to hide the pane.
Desktop Tools
Help Navigator
Use the Help Navigator to find information. It includes
Product filter—Set the filter to show documentation only for the products
you specify.
Contents tab—View the titles and tables of contents of documentation for
your products.
Index tab—Find specific index entries (selected keywords) in the
MathWorks documentation for your products.
Demos tab—View and run demonstrations for your MathWorks products.
Search tab—Look for a specific word or phrase in the documentation. To get
help for a specific function, set the Search type to Function Name.
Favorites tab—View a list of links to documents you previously designated
as favorites.
Display Pane
After finding documentation using the Help Navigator, view it in the display
pane. While viewing the documentation, you can
Browse to other pages—Use the arrows at the tops and bottoms of the pages
to move through the document, or use the back and forward buttons in the
toolbar to go to previously viewed pages.
Bookmark pages—Click the Add to Favorites button in the toolbar.
Print pages—Click the print button in the toolbar.
Find a term in the page—Type a term in the Find in page field in the toolbar
and click Go.
Other features available in the display pane are copying information,
evaluating a selection, and viewing Web pages.
2-9
2 Development Environment
2-10
For More Help
In addition to the Help browser, you can use help functions. To get help for a
specific function, use doc. For example, doc format displays documentation for
the format function in the Help browser. If you type help followed by the
function name, a briefer form of the documentation appears in the Command
Window. Other means for getting help include contacting Technical Support
(http://www.mathworks.com/support) and participating in the newsgroup for
MATLAB users, comp.soft-sys.matlab.
Current Directory Browser
MATLAB file operations use the current directory and the search path as
reference points. Any file you want to run must either be in the current
directory or on the search path.
A quick way to view or change the current directory is by using the Current
Directory field in the desktop toolbar as shown below.
To search for, view, open, and make changes to MATLAB-related directories
and files, use the MATLAB Current Directory browser. Alternatively, you can
use the functions dir, cd, and delete.
Desktop Tools
Search Path
MATLAB uses a search path to find M-files and other MATLAB-related files,
which are organized in directories on your file system. Any file you want to run
in MATLAB must reside in the current directory or in a directory that is on the
search path. Add the directories containing files you create to the MATLAB
search path. By default, the files supplied with MATLAB and MathWorks
toolboxes are included in the search path.
To see which directories are on the search path or to change the search path,
select Set Path from the File menu in the desktop, and use the Set Path dialog
box. Alternatively, you can use the path function to view the search path,
addpath to add directories to the path, and rmpath to remove directories from
the path.
Use the pathname edit box to view
directories and their contents
Click the find button to search for content within M-files
Double-click a file
to open it in an
appropriate tool.
View the help
portion of the
selected M-file.
2-11
2 Development Environment
2-12
Workspace Browser
The MATLAB workspace consists of the set of variables (named arrays) built
up during a MATLAB session and stored in memory. You add variables to the
workspace by using functions, running M-files, and loading saved workspaces.
To view the workspace and information about each variable, use the
Workspace browser, or use the functions who and whos.
To delete variables from the workspace, select the variable and select Delete
from the Edit menu. Alternatively, use the clear function.
The workspace is not maintained after you end the MATLAB session. To save
the workspace to a file that can be read during a later MATLAB session, select
Save Workspace As from the File menu, or use the save function. This saves
the workspace to a binary file called a MAT-file, which has a .mat extension.
There are options for saving to different formats. To read in a MAT-file, select
Import Data from the File menu, or use the load function.
Array Editor
Double-click a variable in the Workspace browser to see it in the Array Editor.
Double-click
a variable to
see and
change its
contents in
the Array
Editor.
Use the Array Editor to view and edit a visual representation of one- or
Desktop Tools
two-dimensional numeric arrays, strings, and cell arrays of strings that are in
the workspace.
Change values of array elements. Change the display format.
Use the tabs to view the variables you have open in the Array Editor.
2-13
2 Development Environment
2-14
Editor/Debugger
Use the Editor/Debugger to create and debug M-files, which are programs you
write to run MATLAB functions. The Editor/Debugger provides a graphical
user interface for basic text editing, as well as for M-file debugging.
You can use any text editor to create M-files, such as Emacs, and can use
preferences (accessible from the desktop File menu) to specify that editor as
the default. If you use another editor, you can still use the MATLAB
Editor/Debugger for debugging, or you can use debugging functions, such as
dbstop, which sets a breakpoint.
If you just need to view the contents of an M-file, you can display it in the
Command Window by using the type function.
Set breakpoints
where you want
execution to pause
so you can examine
variables.
Find and replace strings.Comment selected lines and specify indenting style using the Text menu.
Hold the cursor over
a variable and its
current value
appears (known as
a datatip).
Desktop Tools
Profiler
MATLAB includes a graphical user interface, the Profiler, to help you improve
the performance of your M-files.
For more information, see “Maximizing Performance” in the MATLAB
documentation.
2 Enter statement to
3 Click Start
1 Type profile viewer to open the
2-15
2 Development Environment
2-16
Other Development Environment Features
Additional development environment features are
Importing and Exporting Data—Techniques for bringing data created by
other applications into the MATLAB workspace, including the Import
Wizard, and packaging MATLAB workspace variables for use by other
applications.
Interfacing with Source Control Systems—Access your source control system
from within MATLAB, Simulink
?
, and Stateflow
?
.
Using Notebook—Access MATLAB numeric computation and visualization
software from within a word processing environment (Microsoft Word).
3
Manipulating Matrices
This section provides an introduction to matrix operations in MATLAB.
Matrices and Magic Squares (p. 3-2) Enter matrices, perform matrix operations, and access
matrix elements.
Expressions (p. 3-10) Work with variables, numbers, operators, functions,
expressions.
Working with Matrices (p. 3-14) Generating matrices, load matrices, create matrices from
M-files and concatentation, and delete matrix rows and
columns.
More About Matrices and Arrays
(p. 3-18)
Use matrices for linear algebra, work with arrays,
multivariate data, scalar expansion, and logical
subscripting, and use the find function.
Controlling Command Window Input
and Output (p. 3-28)
Change output format, suppress output, enter long lines,
and edit at the command line.
3 Manipulating Matrices
3-2
Matrices and Magic Squares
In MATLAB, a matrix is a rectangular array of numbers. Special meaning is
sometimes attached to 1-by-1 matrices, which are scalars, and to matrices with
only one row or column, which are vectors. MATLAB has other ways of storing
both numeric and nonnumeric data, but in the beginning, it is usually best to
think of everything as a matrix. The operations in MATLAB are designed to be
as natural as possible. Where other programming languages work with
numbers one at a time, MATLAB allows you to work with entire matrices
quickly and easily. A good example matrix, used throughout this book, appears
in the Renaissance engraving Melencolia I by the German artist and amateur
mathematician Albrecht Dürer.
Matrices and Magic Squares
This image is filled with mathematical symbolism, and if you look carefully,
you will see a matrix in the upper right corner. This matrix is known as a magic
square and was believed by many in Dürer’s time to have genuinely magical
properties. It does turn out to have some fascinating characteristics worth
exploring.
Entering Matrices
The best way for you to get started with MATLAB is to learn how to handle
matrices. Start MATLAB and follow along with each example.
You can enter matrices into MATLAB in several different ways:
Enter an explicit list of elements.
Load matrices from external data files.
Generate matrices using built-in functions.
Create matrices with your own functions in M-files.
Start by entering Dürer’s matrix as a list of its elements. You only have to
follow a few basic conventions:
Separate the elements of a row with blanks or commas.
Use a semicolon, ; , to indicate the end of each row.
3-3
Surround the entire list of elements with square brackets, [ ].
3 Manipulating Matrices
3-4
To enter Dürer’s matrix, simply type in the Command Window
A = [16 3 2 13; 5 10 11 8; 9 6 7 12; 4 15 14 1]
MATLAB displays the matrix you just entered.
A =
16 3 2 13
5 10 11 8
9 6 7 12
4 15 14 1
This exactly matches the numbers in the engraving. Once you have entered the
matrix, it is automatically remembered in the MATLAB workspace. You can
refer to it simply as A. Now that you have A in the workspace, take a look at
what makes it so interesting. Why is it magic?
sum, transpose, and diag
You are probably already aware that the special properties of a magic square
have to do with the various ways of summing its elements. If you take the sum
along any row or column, or along either of the two main diagonals, you will
always get the same number. Let us verify that using MATLAB. The first
statement to try is
sum(A)
MATLAB replies with
ans =
34 34 34 34
When you do not specify an output variable, MATLAB uses the variable ans,
short for answer, to store the results of a calculation. You have computed a row
vector containing the sums of the columns of A. Sure enough, each of the
columns has the same sum, the magic sum, 34.
How about the row sums? MATLAB has a preference for working with the
columns of a matrix, so the easiest way to get the row sums is to transpose the
matrix, compute the column sums of the transpose, and then transpose the
result. The transpose operation is denoted by an apostrophe or single quote, '.
It flips a matrix about its main diagonal and it turns a row vector into a column
vector.
Matrices and Magic Squares
So
A'
produces
ans =
16 5 9 4
3 10 6 15
2 11 7 14
13 8 12 1
And
sum(A')'
produces a column vector containing the row sums
ans =
34
34
34
34
The sum of the elements on the main diagonal is obtained with the sum and the
diag functions.
diag(A)
produces
ans =
16
10
7
1
and
sum(diag(A))
produces
ans =
34
3-5
3 Manipulating Matrices
3-6
The other diagonal, the so-called antidiagonal, is not so important
mathematically, so MATLAB does not have a ready-made function for it. But a
function originally intended for use in graphics, fliplr, flips a matrix from left
to right.
sum(diag(fliplr(A)))
ans =
34
You have verified that the matrix in Dürer’s engraving is indeed a magic
square and, in the process, have sampled a few MATLAB matrix operations.
The following sections continue to use this matrix to illustrate additional
MATLAB capabilities.
Subscripts
The element in row i and column j of A is denoted by A(i,j). For example,
A(4,2) is the number in the fourth row and second column. For our magic
square, A(4,2) is 15. So to compute the sum of the elements in the fourth
column of A, type
A(1,4) + A(2,4) + A(3,4) + A(4,4)
This produces
ans =
34
but is not the most elegant way of summing a single column.
It is also possible to refer to the elements of a matrix with a single subscript,
A(k). This is the usual way of referencing row and column vectors. But it can
also apply to a fully two-dimensional matrix, in which case the array is
regarded as one long column vector formed from the columns of the original
matrix. So, for our magic square, A(8) is another way of referring to the value
15 stored in A(4,2).
If you try to use the value of an element outside of the matrix, it is an error.
t = A(4,5)
Index exceeds matrix dimensions.
Matrices and Magic Squares
On the other hand, if you store a value in an element outside of the matrix, the
size increases to accommodate the newcomer.
X = A;
X(4,5) = 17
X =
16 3 2 13 0
5 10 11 8 0
9 6 7 12 0
4 15 14 1 17
The Colon Operator
The colon, :, is one of the most important MATLAB operators. It occurs in
several different forms. The expression
1:10
is a row vector containing the integers from 1 to 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
To obtain nonunit spacing, specify an increment. For example,
100:-7:50
is
100 93 86 79 72 65 58 51
and
0:pi/4:pi
is
0 0.7854 1.5708 2.3562 3.1416
Subscript expressions involving colons refer to portions of a matrix.
A(1:k,j)
is the first k elements of the jth column of A. So
sum(A(1:4,4))
3-7
3 Manipulating Matrices
3-8
computes the sum of the fourth column. But there is a better way. The colon by
itself refers to all the elements in a row or column of a matrix and the keyword
end refers to the last row or column. So
sum(A(:,end))
computes the sum of the elements in the last column of A.
ans =
34
Why is the magic sum for a 4-by-4 square equal to 34? If the integers from 1 to
16 are sorted into four groups with equal sums, that sum must be
sum(1:16)/4
which, of course, is
ans =
34
The magic Function
MATLAB actually has a built-in function that creates magic squares of almost
any size. Not surprisingly, this function is named magic.
B = magic(4)
B =
16 2 3 13
5 11 10 8
9 7 6 12
4 14 15 1
This matrix is almost the same as the one in the Dürer engraving and has all
the same “magic” properties; the only difference is that the two middle columns
are exchanged.
To make this B into Dürer’s A, swap the two middle columns.
A = B(:,[1 3 2 4])
Matrices and Magic Squares
This says, for each of the rows of matrix B, reorder the elements in the order 1,
3, 2, 4. It produces
A =
16 3 2 13
5 10 11 8
9 6 7 12
4 15 14 1
Why would Dürer go to the trouble of rearranging the columns when he could
have used MATLAB ordering? No doubt he wanted to include the date of the
engraving, 1514, at the bottom of his magic square.
3-9
3 Manipulating Matrices
3-10
Expressions
Like most other programming languages, MATLAB provides mathematical
expressions, but unlike most programming languages, these expressions
involve entire matrices. The building blocks of expressions are
“Variables” on page 3-10
“Numbers” on page 3-10
“Operators” on page 3-11Operators
“Functions” on page 3-11
See also, “Examples of Expressions” on page 3-13.
Variables
MATLAB does not require any type declarations or dimension statements.
When MATLAB encounters a new variable name, it automatically creates the
variable and allocates the appropriate amount of storage. If the variable
already exists, MATLAB changes its contents and, if necessary, allocates new
storage. For example,
num_students = 25
creates a 1-by-1 matrix named num_students and stores the value 25 in its
single element.
Variable names consist of a letter, followed by any number of letters, digits, or
underscores. MATLAB uses only the first 31 characters of a variable name.
MATLAB is case sensitive; it distinguishes between uppercase and lowercase
letters. A and a are not the same variable. To view the matrix assigned to any
variable, simply enter the variable name.
Numbers
MATLAB uses conventional decimal notation, with an optional decimal point
and leading plus or minus sign, for numbers. Scientific notation uses the letter
e to specify a power-of-ten scale factor. Imaginary numbers use either i or j as
a suffix. Some examples of legal numbers are
3 -99 0.0001
9.6397238 1.60210e-20 6.02252e23
1i -3.14159j 3e5i
Expressions
All numbers are stored internally using the long format specified by the IEEE
floating-point standard. Floating-point numbers have a finite precision of
roughly 16 significant decimal digits and a finite range of roughly 10
-308
to
10
+308
.
Operators
Expressions use familiar arithmetic operators and precedence rules.
Functions
MATLAB provides a large number of standard elementary mathematical
functions, including abs, sqrt, exp, and sin. Taking the square root or
logarithm of a negative number is not an error; the appropriate complex result
is produced automatically. MATLAB also provides many more advanced
mathematical functions, including Bessel and gamma functions. Most of these
functions accept complex arguments. For a list of the elementary mathematical
functions, type
help elfun
For a list of more advanced mathematical and matrix functions, type
help specfun
help elmat
+ Addition
-Subrac
* Multiplication
/ Division
\ Left division (described in “Matrices and Linear
Algebra” in the MATLAB documentation)
^ Power
' Complex conjugate transpose
( ) Specify evaluation order
3-11
3 Manipulating Matrices
3-12
Some of the functions, like sqrt and sin, are built in. They are part of the
MATLAB core so they are very efficient, but the computational details are not
readily accessible. Other functions, like gamma and sinh, are implemented in
M-files. You can see the code and even modify it if you want.
Several special functions provide values of useful constants.
Infinity is generated by dividing a nonzero value by zero, or by evaluating well
defined mathematical expressions that overflow, i.e., exceed realmax.
Not-a-number is generated by trying to evaluate expressions like 0/0 or
Inf-Inf that do not have well defined mathematical values.
The function names are not reserved. It is possible to overwrite any of them
with a new variable, such as
eps = 1.e-6
and then use that value in subsequent calculations. The original function can
be restored with
clear eps
pi 3.14159265…
i Imaginary unit, √-1
j Same as i
eps Floating-point relative precision, 2
-52
realmin Smallest floating-point number, 2
-1022
realmax Largest floating-point number, (2-ε)2
1023
Inf Infinity
NaN Not-a-number
Expressions
Examples of Expressions
You have already seen several examples of MATLAB expressions. Here are a
few more examples, and the resulting values.
rho = (1+sqrt(5))/2
rho =
1.6180
a = abs(3+4i)
a =
5
z = sqrt(besselk(4/3,rho-i))
z =
0.3730+ 0.3214i
huge = exp(log(realmax))
huge =
1.7977e+308
toobig = pi*huge
toobig =
Inf
3-13
3 Manipulating Matrices
3-14
Working with Matrices
This section introduces you to other ways of creating matrices:
“Generating Matrices” on page 3-14
“The load Function” on page 3-15
“M-Files” on page 3-15
“Concatenation” on page 3-16
“Deleting Rows and Columns” on page 3-17
Generating Matrices
MATLAB provides four functions that generate basic matrices.
Here are some examples.
Z = zeros(2,4)
Z =
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
F = 5*ones(3,3)
F =
5 5 5
5 5 5
5 5 5
N = fix(10*rand(1,10))
N =
4 9 4 4 8 5 2 6 8 0
zeros All zeros
ones All ones
rand Uniformly distributed random elements
randn Normally distributed random elements
R = randn(4,4)
Working with Matrices
R =
1.0668 0.2944 -0.6918 -1.4410
0.0593 -1.3362 0.8580 0.5711
-0.0956 0.7143 1.2540 -0.3999
-0.8323 1.6236 -1.5937 0.6900
The load Function
The load function reads binary files containing matrices generated by earlier
MATLAB sessions, or reads text files containing numeric data. The text file
should be organized as a rectangular table of numbers, separated by blanks,
with one row per line, and an equal number of elements in each row. For
example, outside of MATLAB, create a text file containing these four lines.
16.0 3.0 2.0 13.0
5.0 10.0 11.0 8.0
9.0 6.0 7.0 12.0
4.0 15.0 14.0 1.0
Store the file under the name magik.dat. Then the statement
load magik.dat
reads the file and creates a variable, magik, containing our example matrix.
An easy way to read data into MATLAB in many text or binary formats is to
use Import Wizard.
M-Files
You can create your own matrices using M-files, which are text files containing
MATLAB code. Use the MATLAB Editor or another text editor to create a file
containing the same statements you would type at the MATLAB command
line. Save the file under a name that ends in .m.
For example, create a file containing these five lines.
A = [ ...
16.0 3.0 2.0 13.0
5.0 10.0 11.0 8.0
9.0 6.0 7.0 12.0
4.0 15.0 14.0 1.0 ];
3-15
3 Manipulating Matrices
3-16
Store the file under the name magik.m. Then the statement
magik
reads the file and creates a variable, A, containing our example matrix.
Concatenation
Concatenation is the process of joining small matrices to make bigger ones. In
fact, you made your first matrix by concatenating its individual elements. The
pair of square brackets, [], is the concatenation operator. For an example, start
with the 4-by-4 magic square, A, and form
B = [A A+32; A+48 A+16]
The result is an 8-by-8 matrix, obtained by joining the four submatrices.
B =
16 3 2 13 48 35 34 45
5 10 11 8 37 42 43 40
9 6 7 12 41 38 39 44
4 15 14 1 36 47 46 33
64 51 50 61 32 19 18 29
53 58 59 56 21 26 27 24
57 54 55 60 25 22 23 28
52 63 62 49 20 31 30 17
This matrix is halfway to being another magic square. Its elements are a
rearrangement of the integers 1:64. Its column sums are the correct value for
an 8-by-8 magic square.
sum(B)
ans =
260 260 260 260 260 260 260 260
But its row sums, sum(B')', are not all the same. Further manipulation is
necessary to make this a valid 8-by-8 magic square.
Working with Matrices
Deleting Rows and Columns
You can delete rows and columns from a matrix using just a pair of square
brackets. Start with
X = A;
Then, to delete the second column of X, use
X(:,2) = []
This changes X to
X =
16 2 13
5 11 8
9 7 12
4 14 1
If you delete a single element from a matrix, the result is not a matrix anymore.
So, expressions like
X(1,2) = []
result in an error. However, using a single subscript deletes a single element,
or sequence of elements, and reshapes the remaining elements into a row
vector. So
X(2:2:10) = []
results in
X =
16 9 2 7 13 12 1
3-17
3 Manipulating Matrices
3-18
More About Matrices and Arrays
This section shows you more about working with matrices and arrays, focusing
on
“Linear Algebra” on page 3-18
“Arrays” on page 3-21
“Multivariate Data” on page 3-24
“Scalar Expansion” on page 3-25
“Logical Subscripting” on page 3-26
“The find Function” on page 3-27
Linear Algebra
Informally, the terms matrix and array are often used interchangeably. More
precisely, a matrix is a two-dimensional numeric array that represents a linear
transformation. The mathematical operations defined on matrices are the
subject of linear algebra.
Dürer’s magic square
A =
16 3 2 13
5 10 11 8
9 6 7 12
4 15 14 1
provides several examples that give a taste of MATLAB matrix operations. You
have already seen the matrix transpose, A'. Adding a matrix to its transpose
produces a symmetric matrix.
A + A'
ans =
32 8 11 17
8 20 17 23
11 17 14 26
17 23 26 2
More About Matrices and Arrays
The multiplication symbol, *, denotes the matrix multiplication involving inner
products between rows and columns. Multiplying the transpose of a matrix by
the original matrix also produces a symmetric matrix.
A'*A
ans =
378 212 206 360
212 370 368 206
206 368 370 212
360 206 212 378
The determinant of this particular matrix happens to be zero, indicating that
the matrix is singular.
d = det(A)
d =
0
The reduced row echelon form of A is not the identity.
R = rref(A)
R =
1 0 0 1
0 1 0 -3
0 0 1 3
0 0 0 0
Since the matrix is singular, it does not have an inverse. If you try to compute
the inverse with
X = inv(A)
you will get a warning message
Warning: Matrix is close to singular or badly scaled.
Results may be inaccurate. RCOND = 1.175530e-017.
Roundoff error has prevented the matrix inversion algorithm from detecting
exact singularity. But the value of rcond, which stands for reciprocal condition
estimate, is on the order of eps, the floating-point relative precision, so the
3-19
computed inverse is unlikely to be of much use.
3 Manipulating Matrices
3-20
The eigenvalues of the magic square are interesting.
e = eig(A)
e =
34.0000
8.0000
0.0000
-8.0000
One of the eigenvalues is zero, which is another consequence of singularity.
The largest eigenvalue is 34, the magic sum. That is because the vector of all
ones is an eigenvector.
v = ones(4,1)
v =
1
1
1
1
A*v
ans =
34
34
34
34
When a magic square is scaled by its magic sum,
P = A/34
the result is a doubly stochastic matrix whose row and column sums are all 1.
P =
0.4706 0.0882 0.0588 0.3824
0.1471 0.2941 0.3235 0.2353
0.2647 0.1765 0.2059 0.3529
0.1176 0.4412 0.4118 0.0294
More About Matrices and Arrays
Such matrices represent the transition probabilities in a Markov process.
Repeated powers of the matrix represent repeated steps of the process. For our
example, the fifth power
P^5
is
0.2507 0.2495 0.2494 0.2504
0.2497 0.2501 0.2502 0.2500
0.2500 0.2498 0.2499 0.2503
0.2496 0.2506 0.2505 0.2493
This shows that as k approaches infinity, all the elements in the kth power, P
k
,
approach
1
/4.
Finally, the coefficients in the characteristic polynomial
poly(A)
are
1 -34 -64 2176 0
This indicates that the characteristic polynomial
det( A - λI )
is
λ
4
- 34λ
3
- 64λ
2
+ 2176λ
The constant term is zero, because the matrix is singular, and the coefficient of
the cubic term is -34, because the matrix is magic!
Arrays
When they are taken away from the world of linear algebra, matrices become
two-dimensional numeric arrays. Arithmetic operations on arrays are done
element-by-element. This means that addition and subtraction are the same
for arrays and matrices, but that multiplicative operations are different.
MATLAB uses a dot, or decimal point, as part of the notation for multiplicative
array operations.
3-21
3 Manipulating Matrices
3-22
The list of operators includes
If the Dürer magic square is multiplied by itself with array multiplication
A.*A
the result is an array containing the squares of the integers from 1 to 16, in an
unusual order.
ans =
256 9 4 169
25 100 121 64
81 36 49 144
16 225 196 1
Building Tables
Array operations are useful for building tables. Suppose n is the column vector
n = (0:9)';
Then
pows = [n n.^2 2.^n]
+ Addition
- Subtraction
.* Element-by-element multiplication
./ Element-by-element division
.\ Element-by-element left division
.^ Element-by-element power
.' Unconjugated array transpose
More About Matrices and Arrays
builds a table of squares and powers of 2.
pows =
0 0 1
1 1 2
2 4 4
3 9 8
4 16 16
5 25 32
6 36 64
7 49 128
8 64 256
9 81 512
The elementary math functions operate on arrays element by element. So
format short g
x = (1:0.1:2)';
logs = [x log10(x)]
builds a table of logarithms.
logs =
1.0 0
1.1 0.04139
1.2 0.07918
1.3 0.11394
1.4 0.14613
1.5 0.17609
1.6 0.20412
1.7 0.23045
1.8 0.25527
1.9 0.27875
2.0 0.30103
3-23
3 Manipulating Matrices
3-24
Multivariate Data
MATLAB uses column-oriented analysis for multivariate statistical data. Each
column in a data set represents a variable and each row an observation. The
(i,j)th element is the ith observation of the jth variable.
As an example, consider a data set with three variables:
Heart rate
Weight
Hours of exercise per week
For five observations, the resulting array might look like
D =
72 134 3.2
81 201 3.5
69 156 7.1
82 148 2.4
75 170 1.2
The first row contains the heart rate, weight, and exercise hours for patient 1,
the second row contains the data for patient 2, and so on. Now you can apply
many MATLAB data analysis functions to this data set. For example, to obtain
the mean and standard deviation of each column
mu = mean(D), sigma = std(D)
mu =
75.8 161.8 3.48
sigma =
5.6303 25.499 2.2107
For a list of the data analysis functions available in MATLAB, type
help datafun
If you have access to the Statistics Toolbox, type
help stats
More About Matrices and Arrays
Scalar Expansion
Matrices and scalars can be combined in several different ways. For example,
a scalar is subtracted from a matrix by subtracting it from each element. The
average value of the elements in our magic square is 8.5, so
B = A - 8.5
forms a matrix whose column sums are zero.
B =
7.5 -5.5 -6.5 4.5
-3.5 1.5 2.5 -0.5
0.5 -2.5 -1.5 3.5
-4.5 6.5 5.5 -7.5
sum(B)
ans =
0 0 0 0
With scalar expansion, MATLAB assigns a specified scalar to all indices in a
range. For example,
B(1:2,2:3) = 0
zeroes out a portion of B.
B =
7.5 0 0 4.5
-3.5 0 0 -0.5
0.5 -2.5 -1.5 3.5
-4.5 6.5 5.5 -7.5
3-25
3 Manipulating Matrices
3-26
Logical Subscripting
The logical vectors created from logical and relational operations can be used
to reference subarrays. Suppose X is an ordinary matrix and L is a matrix of the
same size that is the result of some logical operation. Then X(L) specifies the
elements of X where the elements of L are nonzero.
This kind of subscripting can be done in one step by specifying the logical
operation as the subscripting expression. Suppose you have the following set of
data.
x =
2.1 1.7 1.6 1.5 NaN 1.9 1.8 1.5 5.1 1.8 1.4 2.2 1.6 1.8
The NaN is a marker for a missing observation, such as a failure to respond to
an item on a questionnaire. To remove the missing data with logical indexing,
use finite(x), which is true for all finite numerical values and false for NaN
and Inf.
x = x(finite(x))
x =
2.1 1.7 1.6 1.5 1.9 1.8 1.5 5.1 1.8 1.4 2.2 1.6 1.8
Now there is one observation, 5.1, which seems to be very different from the
others. It is an outlier. The following statement removes outliers, in this case
those elements more than three standard deviations from the mean.
x = x(abs(x-mean(x)) <= 3*std(x))
x =
2.1 1.7 1.6 1.5 1.9 1.8 1.5 1.8 1.4 2.2 1.6 1.8
For another example, highlight the location of the prime numbers in Dürer’s
magic square by using logical indexing and scalar expansion to set the
nonprimes to 0.
A(~isprime(A)) = 0
A =
0 3 2 13
5 0 11 0
0 0 7 0
0 0 0 0
More About Matrices and Arrays
The find Function
The find function determines the indices of array elements that meet a given
logical condition. In its simplest form, find returns a column vector of indices.
Transpose that vector to obtain a row vector of indices. For example,
k = find(isprime(A))'
picks out the locations, using one-dimensional indexing, of the primes in the
magic square.
k =
2 5 9 10 11 13
Display those primes, as a row vector in the order determined by k, with
A(k)
ans =
5 3 2 11 7 13
When you use k as a left-hand-side index in an assignment statement, the
matrix structure is preserved.
A(k) = NaN
A =
16 NaN NaN NaN
NaN 10 NaN 8
9 6 NaN 12
4 15 14 1
3-27
3 Manipulating Matrices
3-28
Controlling Command Window Input and Output
So far, you have been using the MATLAB command line, typing functions and
expressions, and seeing the results printed in the Command Window. This
section describes
“The format Function” on page 3-28, to control the appearance of the output
values
“Suppressing Output” on page 3-30
“Entering Long Statements” on page 3-30
“Command Line Editing” on page 3-30
The format Function
The format function controls the numeric format of the values displayed by
MATLAB. The function affects only how numbers are displayed, not how
MATLAB computes or saves them. Here are the different formats, together
with the resulting output produced from a vector x with components of
different magnitudes.
Note To ensure proper spacing, use a fixed-width font, such as Courier.
x = [4/3 1.2345e-6]
format short
1.3333 0.0000
format short e
1.3333e+000 1.2345e-006
format short g
1.3333 1.2345e-006
Controlling Command Window Input and Output
format long
1.33333333333333 0.00000123450000
format long e
1.333333333333333e+000 1.234500000000000e-006
format long g
1.33333333333333 1.2345e-006
format bank
1.33 0.00
format rat
4/3 1/810045
format hex
3ff5555555555555 3eb4b6231abfd271
If the largest element of a matrix is larger than 10
3
or smaller than 10
-3
,
MATLAB applies a common scale factor for the short and long formats.
In addition to the format functions shown above
format compact
suppresses many of the blank lines that appear in the output. This lets you
view more information on a screen or window. If you want more control over
the output format, use the sprintf and fprintf functions.
3-29
3 Manipulating Matrices
3-30
Suppressing Output
If you simply type a statement and press Return or Enter, MATLAB
automatically displays the results on screen. However, if you end the line with
a semicolon, MATLAB performs the computation but does not display any
output. This is particularly useful when you generate large matrices. For
example,
A = magic(100);
Entering Long Statements
If a statement does not fit on one line, use an ellipsis (three periods), ...,
followed by Return or Enter to indicate that the statement continues on the
next line. For example,
s = 1 -1/2 + 1/3 -1/4 + 1/5 - 1/6 + 1/7 ...
- 1/8 + 1/9 - 1/10 + 1/11 - 1/12;
Blank spaces around the =, +, and - signs are optional, but they improve
readability.
Command Line Editing
Various arrow and control keys on your keyboard allow you to recall, edit, and
reuse statements you have typed earlier. For example, suppose you mistakenly
enter
rho = (1 + sqt(5))/2
You have misspelled sqrt. MATLAB responds with
Undefined function or variable 'sqt'.
Instead of retyping the entire line, simply press the ↑ key. The statement you
typed is redisplayed. Use the ← key to move the cursor over and insert the
missing r. Repeated use of the ↑ key recalls earlier lines. Typing a few
characters and then the ↑ key finds a previous line that begins with those
characters. You can also copy previously executed statements from the
Command History. For more information, see “Command History” on page 2-6.
Following is the list of arrow and control keys you can use in the Command
Window. If the preference you select for Command line key bindings is
Controlling Command Window Input and Output
Emacs (MATLAB standard), you can also use the Ctrl+key combinations
shown. See also general keyboard shortcuts for desktop tools.
Key Control Key for Emacs
(MATLAB standard)
Preference
Operation
Ctrl+P Recall previous line. Works only at command
line.
Ctrl+N Recall next line. Works only at command line if
you previously used the up arrow or Ctrl+P.
Ctrl+B Move back one character.
Ctrl+F Move forward one character.
Ctrl+ Move right one word.
Ctrl+ Move left one word.
Home Ctrl+A Move to beginning of command line.
End Ctrl+E Move to end of command line.
Ctrl+Home Move to top of Command Window.
Ctrl+End Move to end of Command Window.
Esc Ctrl+U Clear command line.
Delete Ctrl+D Delete character at cursor in command line.
Backspace Ctrl+H Delete character before cursor in command line.
Ctrl+K Cut contents (kill) to end of command line.
Shift+Home Highlight to beginning of command line.
Shift+End Highlight to end of last line. Can start at any
line in the Command Window.
3-31
3 Manipulating Matrices
3-32
4
Graphics
Basic Plotting (p. 4-2) Create a plot, include multiple data sets, specify line
style, colors, and markers, plot imaginary and complex
data, add new plots, work with figure windows and axes,
and save figures.
Editing Plots (p. 4-14) Edit plots interactively and using functions, and use the
property editor.
Mesh and Surface Plots (p. 4-18) Visualize functions of two variables.
Images (p. 4-22) Work with images.
Printing Graphics (p. 4-24) Print and export figures.
Handle Graphics (p. 4-26) Work with graphics objects and set object properties.
Graphics User Interfaces (p. 4-33) Create graphical user interfaces.
Animations (p. 4-34) Create moving graphics.
4 Graphics
4-2
Basic Plotting
MATLAB has extensive facilities for displaying vectors and matrices as
graphs, as well as annotating and printing these graphs. This section describes
a few of the most important graphics functions and provides examples of some
typical applications:
“Creating a Plot” on page 4-2
“Multiple Data Sets in One Graph” on page 4-3
“Specifying Line Styles and Colors” on page 4-4
“Plotting Lines and Markers” on page 4-5
“Imaginary and Complex Data” on page 4-6
“Adding Plots to an Existing Graph” on page 4-7
“Figure Windows” on page 4-8
“Multiple Plots in One Figure” on page 4-9
“Controlling the Axes” on page 4-10
“Axis Labels and Titles” on page 4-12
“Saving a Figure” on page 4-13
Creating a Plot
The plot function has different forms, depending on the input arguments. If y
is a vector, plot(y) produces a piecewise linear graph of the elements of y
versus the index of the elements of y. If you specify two vectors as arguments,
plot(x,y) produces a graph of y versus x.
For example, these statements use the colon operator to create a vector of x
values ranging from zero to 2π, compute the sine of these values, and plot the
result.
x = 0:pi/100:2*pi;
y = sin(x);
plot(x,y)
Now label the axes and add a title. The characters \pi create the symbol π.
xlabel('x = 0:2\pi')
ylabel('Sine of x')
title('Plot of the Sine Function','FontSize',12)
Basic Plotting
Multiple Data Sets in One Graph
Multiple x-y pair arguments create multiple graphs with a single call to plot.
MATLAB automatically cycles through a predefined (but user settable) list of
colors to allow discrimination among sets of data. For example, these
statements plot three related functions of x, each curve in a separate
distinguishing color.
y2 = sin(x-.25);
y3 = sin(x-.5);
plot(x,y,x,y2,x,y3)
The legend command provides an easy way to identify the individual plots.
legend('sin(x)','sin(x-.25)','sin(x-.5)')
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
?1
?0.8
?0.6
?0.4
?0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
x = 0:2π
Sine of x
Plot of the Sine Function
4-3
4 Graphics
4-4
Specifying Line Styles and Colors
It is possible to specify color, line styles, and markers (such as plus signs or
circles) when you plot your data using the plot command.
plot(x,y,'color_style_marker')
color_style_marker is a string containing from one to four characters
(enclosed in single quotation marks) constructed from a color, a line style, and
a marker type:
Color strings are 'c', 'm', 'y', 'r', 'g', 'b', 'w', and 'k'. These correspond
to cyan, magenta, yellow, red, green, blue, white, and black.
Linestyle strings are '-' for solid, '--' for dashed, ':' for dotted, '-.' for
dash-dot. Omit the linestyle for no line.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
?1
?0.8
?0.6
?0.4
?0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
sin(x)
sin(x?.25)
sin(x?.5)
Basic Plotting
The marker types are '+', 'o', '*', and 'x' and the filled marker types are
's' for square, 'd' for diamond, '^' for up triangle, 'v' for down triangle,
'>' for right triangle, '<' for left triangle, 'p' for pentagram, 'h' for
hexagram, and none for no marker.
You can also edit color, line style, and markers interactively. See “Editing
Plots” on page 4-14 for more information.
Plotting Lines and Markers
If you specify a marker type but not a linestyle, MATLAB draws only the
marker. For example,
plot(x,y,'ks')
plots black squares at each data point, but does not connect the markers with
a line.
The statement
plot(x,y,'r:+')
plots a red dotted line and places plus sign markers at each data point. You
may want to use fewer data points to plot the markers than you use to plot the
lines. This example plots the data twice using a different number of points for
the dotted line and marker plots.
x1 = 0:pi/100:2*pi;
x2 = 0:pi/10:2*pi;
plot(x1,sin(x1),'r:',x2,sin(x2),'r+')
4-5
4 Graphics
4-6
Imaginary and Complex Data
When the arguments to plot are complex, the imaginary part is ignored except
when plot is given a single complex argument. For this special case, the
command is a shortcut for a plot of the real part versus the imaginary part.
Therefore,
plot(Z)
where Z is a complex vector or matrix, is equivalent to
plot(real(Z),imag(Z))
For example,
t = 0:pi/10:2*pi;
plot(exp(i*t),'-o')
axis equal
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
?1
?0.8
?0.6
?0.4
?0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Basic Plotting
draws a 20-sided polygon with little circles at the vertices. The command
axis equal makes the individual tick mark increments on the x- and y-axes
the same length, which makes this plot more circular in appearance.
Adding Plots to an Existing Graph
The hold command enables you to add plots to an existing graph. When you
type
hold on
MATLAB does not replace the existing graph when you issue another plotting
command; it adds the new data to the current graph, rescaling the axes if
necessary.
?1 ?0.5 0 0.5 1
?1
?0.8
?0.6
?0.4
?0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
4-7
4 Graphics
4-8
For example, these statements first create a contour plot of the peaks function,
then superimpose a pseudocolor plot of the same function.
[x,y,z] = peaks;
contour(x,y,z,20,'k')
hold on
pcolor(x,y,z)
shading interp
hold off
The hold on command causes the pcolor plot to be combined with the contour
plot in one figure.
Figure Windows
Graphing functions automatically open a new figure window if there are no
figure windows already on the screen. If a figure window exists, MATLAB uses
that window for graphics output. If there are multiple figure windows open,
Basic Plotting
MATLAB targets the one that is designated the “current figure” (the last figure
used or clicked in).
To make an existing figure window the current figure, you can click the mouse
while the pointer is in that window or you can type
figure(n)
where n is the number in the figure title bar. The results of subsequent
graphics commands are displayed in this window.
To open a new figure window and make it the current figure, type
figure
Multiple Plots in One Figure
The subplot command enables you to display multiple plots in the same
window or print them on the same piece of paper. Typing
subplot(m,n,p)
partitions the figure window into an m-by-n matrix of small subplots and selects
the pth subplot for the current plot. The plots are numbered along first the top
row of the figure window, then the second row, and so on. For example, these
statements plot data in four different subregions of the figure window.
t = 0:pi/10:2*pi;
[X,Y,Z] = cylinder(4*cos(t));
subplot(2,2,1); mesh(X)
subplot(2,2,2); mesh(Y)
subplot(2,2,3); mesh(Z)
subplot(2,2,4); mesh(X,Y,Z)
4-9
4 Graphics
4-10
Controlling the Axes
The axis command supports a number of options for setting the scaling,
orientation, and aspect ratio of plots. You can also set these options
interactively. See “Editing Plots” on page 4-14 for more information.
Setting Axis Limits
By default, MATLAB finds the maxima and minima of the data to choose the
axis limits to span this range. The axis command enables you to specify your
own limits
axis([xmin xmax ymin ymax])
0
20
40
0
20
40
?5
0
5
0
20
40
0
20
40
?5
0
5
0
20
40
0
20
40
0
0.5
1
?5
0
5
?5
0
5
0
0.5
1
Basic Plotting
or for three-dimensional graphs,
axis([xmin xmax ymin ymax zmin zmax])
Use the command
axis auto
to reenable MATLAB automatic limit selection.
Setting Axis Aspect Ratio
axis also enables you to specify a number of predefined modes. For example,
axis square
makes the x-axes and y-axes the same length.
axis equal
makes the individual tick mark increments on the x- and y-axes the same
length. This means
plot(exp(i*[0:pi/10:2*pi]))
followed by either axis square or axis equal turns the oval into a proper
circle.
axis auto normal
returns the axis scaling to its default, automatic mode.
Setting Axis Visibility
You can use the axis command to make the axis visible or invisible.
axis on
makes the axis visible. This is the default.
axis off
makes the axis invisible.
4-11
4 Graphics
4-12
Setting Grid Lines
The grid command toggles grid lines on and off. The statement
grid on
turns the grid lines on and
grid off
turns them back off again.
Axis Labels and Titles
The xlabel, ylabel, and zlabel commands add x-, y-, and z-axis labels. The
title command adds a title at the top of the figure and the text function
inserts text anywhere in the figure. A subset of TeX notation produces Greek
letters. You can also set these options interactively. See “Editing Plots” on
page 4-14 for more information.
t = -pi:pi/100:pi;
y = sin(t);
plot(t,y)
axis([-pi pi -1 1])
xlabel('-\pi \leq {\itt} \leq \pi')
ylabel('sin(t)')
title('Graph of the sine function')
text(1,-1/3,'{\itNote the odd symmetry.}')
Basic Plotting
Saving a Figure
To save a figure, select Save from the File menu. To save it using a graphics
format, such as TIFF, for use with other applications, select Export from the
File menu. You can also save from the command line—use the saveas
command, including any options to save the figure in a different format.
?3 ?2 ?1 0 1 2 3
?1
?0.8
?0.6
?0.4
?0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
?π ≤ t ≤ π
sin(t)
Graph of the sine function
Note the odd symmetry.
4-13
4 Graphics
4-14
Editing Plots
MATLAB formats a graph to provide readability, setting the scale of axes,
including tick marks on the axes, and using color and line style to distinguish
the plots in the graph. However, if you are creating presentation graphics, you
may want to change this default formatting or add descriptive labels, titles,
legends and other annotations to help explain your data.
MATLAB supports two ways to edit the plots you create.
Using the mouse to select and edit objects interactively
Using MATLAB functions at the command-line or in an M-file
Interactive Plot Editing
If you enable plot editing mode in the MATLAB figure window, you can perform
point-and-click editing of the objects in your graph. In this mode, you select the
object or objects you want to edit by double-clicking it. This starts the Property
Editor, which provides access to properties of the object that control its
appearance and behavior.
For more information about interactive editing, see “Using Plot Editing Mode”
on page 4-15. For information about editing object properties in plot editing
mode, see “Using the Property Editor” on page 4-16.
Note Plot editing mode provides an alternative way to access the properties
of MATLAB graphic objects. However, you can only access a subset of object
properties through this mechanism. You may need to use a combination of
interactive editing and command line editing to achieve the effect you desire.
Using Functions to Edit Graphs
If you prefer to work from the MATLAB command line or if you are creating an
M-file, you can use MATLAB commands to edit the graphs you create. Taking
advantage of MATLAB Handle Graphics system, you can use the set and get
commands to change the properties of the objects in a graph. For more
information about using command line, see “Handle Graphics” on page 4-26.
Editing Plots
Using Plot Editing Mode
The MATLAB figure window supports a point-and-click style editing mode that
you can use to customize the appearance of your graph. The following
illustration shows a figure window with plot editing mode enabled and labels
the main plot editing mode features.
Click this button to start plot
edit mode.
Use the Edit, Insert, and Tools
menus to add objects or edit
existing objects in the graph.
Double-click an object to
select it.
Position labels, legends, and
other objects by clicking and
dragging them.
Access object-specific plot
edit functions through
context-sensitive pop-up
menus.
Use these toolbar buttons to add text, arrows, and lines to a graph.
4-15
4 Graphics
4-16
Using the Property Editor
In plot editing mode, you can use a graphical user interface, called the Property
Editor, to edit the properties of objects in the graph. The Property Editor
provides access to many properties of the root, figure, axes, line, light, patch,
image, surfaces rectangle, and text objects. For example, using the Property
Editor, you can change the thickness of a line, add titles and axes labels, add
lights, and perform many other plot editing tasks.
This figure shows the components of the Property Editor interface.
Use these buttons to move back and forth among the graphics objects you have edited.
Click Help to get information about
particular properties.
Use the navigation bar to select
the object you want to edit.
Click a tab to view a group of
properties.
Click here to view a list of
values for this field.
Select this check box to see the
effect of your changes as you
make them.
Click OK to apply your changes
and dismiss the Property Editor.
Click Cancel to dismiss the Property Editor
without applying your changes.
Click Apply to apply your changes
without dismissing the Property Editor.
Editing Plots
Starting the Property Editor
You start the Property Editor by double-clicking an object in a graph, such as
a line, or by right-clicking an object and selecting the Properties option from
the object’s context menu.
You can also start the Property Editor by selecting either the Figure
Properties, Axes Properties, or Current Object Properties from the figure
window Edit menu. These options automatically enable plot editing mode, if it
is not already enabled.
Once you start the Property Editor, keep it open throughout an editing session.
It provides access to all the objects in the graph. If you click another object in
the graph, the Property Editor displays the set of panels associated with that
object type. You can also use the Property Editor’s navigation bar to select an
object in the graph to edit.
4-17
4 Graphics
4-18
Mesh and Surface Plots
MATLAB defines a surface by the z-coordinates of points above a grid in the x-y
plane, using straight lines to connect adjacent points. The mesh and surf
plotting functions display surfaces in three dimensions. mesh produces
wireframe surfaces that color only the lines connecting the defining points.
surf displays both the connecting lines and the faces of the surface in color.
Visualizing Functions of Two Variables
To display a function of two variables, z = f (x,y),
Generate X and Y matrices consisting of repeated rows and columns,
respectively, over the domain of the function.
Use X and Y to evaluate and graph the function.
The meshgrid function transforms the domain specified by a single vector or
two vectors x and y into matrices X and Y for use in evaluating functions of two
variables. The rows of X are copies of the vector x and the columns of Y are
copies of the vector y.
Example—Graphing the sinc Function
This example evaluates and graphs the two-dimensional sinc function, sin(r)/r,
between the x and y directions. R is the distance from origin, which is at the
center of the matrix. Adding eps (a MATLAB command that returns the
smallest floating-point number on your system) avoids the indeterminate 0/0
at the origin.
[X,Y] = meshgrid(-8:.5:8);
R = sqrt(X.^2 + Y.^2) + eps;
Z = sin(R)./R;
mesh(X,Y,Z,'EdgeColor','black')
Mesh and Surface Plots
By default, MATLAB colors the mesh using the current colormap. However,
this example uses a single-colored mesh by specifying the EdgeColor surface
property. See the surface reference page for a list of all surface properties.
You can create a transparent mesh by disabling hidden line removal.
hidden off
See the hidden reference page for more information on this option.
Example—Colored Surface Plots
A surface plot is similar to a mesh plot except the rectangular faces of the
surface are colored. The color of the faces is determined by the values of Z and
the colormap (a colormap is an ordered list of colors). These statements graph
the sinc function as a surface plot, select a colormap, and add a color bar to
show the mapping of data to color.
surf(X,Y,Z)
colormap hsv
?10
?5
0
5
10
?10
?5
0
5
10
?0.5
0
0.5
1
4-19
colorbar
4 Graphics
4-20
See the colormap reference page for information on colormaps.
Surface Plots with Lighting
Lighting is the technique of illuminating an object with a directional light
source. In certain cases, this technique can make subtle differences in surface
shape easier to see. Lighting can also be used to add realism to
three-dimensional graphs.
This example uses the same surface as the previous examples, but colors it red
and removes the mesh lines. A light object is then added to the left of the
“camera” (that is the location in space from where you are viewing the surface).
?0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
?10
?5
0
5
10
?10
?5
0
5
10
?0.5
0
0.5
1
Mesh and Surface Plots
After adding the light and setting the lighting method to phong, use the view
command to change the viewpoint so you are looking at the surface from a
different point in space (an azimuth of -15 and an elevation of 65 degrees).
Finally, zoom in on the surface using the toolbar zoom mode.
surf(X,Y,Z,'FaceColor','red','EdgeColor','none');
camlight left; lighting phong
view(-15,65)
4-21
4 Graphics
4-22
Images
Two-dimensional arrays can be displayed as images, where the array elements
determine brightness or color of the images. For example, the statements
load durer
whos
Name Size Bytes Class
X 648x509 2638656 double array
caption 2x28 112 char array
map 128x3 3072 double array
load the file durer.mat, adding three variables to the workspace. The matrix X
is a 648-by-509 matrix and map is a 128-by-3 matrix that is the colormap for this
image.
Note MAT-files, such as durer.mat, are binary files that can be created on
one platform and later read by MATLAB on a different platform.
The elements of X are integers between 1 and 128, which serve as indices into
the colormap, map. Then
image(X)
colormap(map)
axis image
reproduces Dürer’s etching shown at the beginning of this book. A high
resolution scan of the magic square in the upper right corner is available in
another file. Type
load detail
and then use the up arrow key on your keyboard to reexecute the image,
colormap, and axis commands. The statement
colormap(hot)
adds some twentieth century colorization to the sixteenth century etching. The
function hot generates a colormap containing shades of reds, oranges, and
Images
yellows. Typically a given image matrix has a specific colormap associated with
it. See the colormap reference page for a list of other predefined colormaps.
4-23
4 Graphics
4-24
Printing Graphics
You can print a MATLAB figure directly on a printer connected to your
computer or you can export the figure to one of the standard graphic file
formats supported by MATLAB. There are two ways to print and export
figures:
Using the Print option under the File menu
Using the print command
Printing from the Menu
There are four menu options under the File menu that pertain to printing:
The Page Setup option displays a dialog box that enables you to adjust
characteristics of the figure on the printed page.
The Print Setup option displays a dialog box that sets printing defaults, but
does not actually print the figure.
The Print Preview option enables you to view the figure the way it will look
on the printed page.
The Print option displays a dialog box that lets you select standard printing
options and print the figure.
Generally, use Print Preview to determine whether the printed output is what
you want. If not, use the Page Setup dialog box to change the output settings.
Select the Page Setup dialog box Help button to display information on how to
set up the page.
Exporting Figure to Graphics Files
The Export option under the File menu enables you to export the figure to a
variety of standard graphics file formats.
Using the Print Command
The print command provides more flexibility in the type of output sent to the
printer and allows you to control printing from M-files. The result can be sent
directly to your default printer or stored in a specified file. A wide variety of
output formats, including TIFF, JPEG, and PostScript, is available.
For example, this statement saves the contents of the current figure window as
color Encapsulated Level 2 PostScript in the file called magicsquare.eps. It
Printing Graphics
also includes a TIFF preview, which enables most word processors to display
the picture
print -depsc2 -tiff magicsquare.eps
To save the same figure as a TIFF file with a resolution of 200 dpi, use the
command
print -dtiff -r200 magicsquare.tiff
If you type print on the command line,
print
MATLAB prints the current figure on your default printer.
4-25
4 Graphics
4-26
Handle Graphics
When you use a plotting command, MATLAB creates the graph using various
graphics objects, such as lines, text, and surfaces (see “Graphics Objects” on
page 4-26 for a complete list). All graphics objects have properties that control
the appearance and behavior of the object. MATLAB enables you to query the
value of each property and set the value of most properties.
Whenever MATLAB creates a graphics object, it assigns an identifier (called a
handle) to the object. You can use this handle to access the object’s properties.
Handle Graphics is useful if you want to
Modify the appearance of graphs.
Create custom plotting commands by writing M-files that create and
manipulate objects directly.
Graphics Objects
Graphics objects are the basic elements used to display graphics and user
interface elements. This table lists the graphics objects.
Object Description
Root Top of the hierarchy corresponding to the computer
screen
Figure Window used to display graphics and user interfaces
Axes Axes for displaying graphs in a figure
Uicontrol User interface control that executes a function in
response to user interaction
Uimenu User-defined figure window menu
Uicontextmenu Pop-up menu invoked by right clicking on a graphics
object
Image Two-dimensional pixel-based picture
Light Light sources that affect the coloring of patch and
surface objects
Handle Graphics
Object Hierarchy
The objects are organized in a tree structured hierarchy reflecting their
interdependence. For example, line objects require axes objects as a frame of
reference. In turn, axes objects exist only within figure objects. This diagram
illustrates the tree structure.
Creating Objects
Each object has an associated function that creates the object. These functions
have the same name as the objects they create. For example, the text function
creates text objects, the figure function creates figure objects, and so on.
Line Line used by functions such as plot, plot3, semilogx
Patch Filled polygon with edges
Rectangle Two-dimensional shape varying from rectangles to
ovals
Surface Three-dimensional representation of matrix data
created by plotting the value of the data as heights
above the x-y plane
Text Character string
Object Description (Continued)
Uimenu
Line
Axes Uicontrol
Image
Figure
Uicontextmenu
Light SurfacePatch Text
Root
Rectangle
4-27
MATLAB high-level graphics functions (like plot and surf) call the
4 Graphics
4-28
appropriate low-level function to draw their respective graphics. For more
information about an object and a description of its properties, see the
reference page for the object’s creation function. Object creation functions have
the same name as the object. For example, the object creation function for axes
objects is called axes.
Commands for Working with Objects
This table lists commands commonly used when working with objects.
Setting Object Properties
All object properties have default values. However, you may find it useful to
change the settings of some properties to customize your graph. There are two
ways to set object properties:
Specify values for properties when you create the object.
Set the property value on an object that already exists.
Setting Properties from Plotting Commands
You can specify object property values as arguments to object creation
functions as well as with plotting function, such as plot, mesh, and surf.
Function Purpose
copyobj Copy graphics object
delete Delete an object
findobj Find the handle of objects having specified property values
gca Return the handle of the current axes
gcf Return the handle of the current figure
gco Return the handle of the current object
get Query the value of an objects properties
set Set the value of an objects properties
Handle Graphics
For example, plotting commands that create lines or surfaces enable you to
specify property name/property value pairs as arguments. The command
plot(x,y,'LineWidth',1.5)
plots the data in the variables x and y using lines having a LineWidth property
set to 1.5 points (one point = 1/72 inch). You can set any line object property
this way.
Setting Properties of Existing Objects
To modify the property values of existing objects, you can use the set command
or, if plot editing mode is enabled, the Property Editor. The Property Editor
provides a graphical user interface to many object properties. This section
describes how to use the set command. See “Using the Property Editor” on
page 4-16 for more information.
Many plotting commands can return the handles of the objects created so you
can modify the objects using the set command. For example, these statements
plot a five-by-five matrix (creating five lines, one per column) and then set the
Marker to a square and the MarkerFaceColor to green.
h = plot(magic(5));
set(h,'Marker','s',MarkerFaceColor','g')
In this case, h is a vector containing five handles, one for each of the five lines
in the plot. The set statement sets the Marker and MarkerFaceColor properties
of all lines to the same values.
Setting Multiple Property Values
If you want to set the properties of each line to a different value, you can use
cell arrays to store all the data and pass it to the set command. For example,
create a plot and save the line handles.
h = plot(magic(5));
Suppose you want to add different markers to each line and color the marker’s
face color to the same color as the line. You need to define two cell arrays – one
containing the property names and the other containing the desired values of
the properties.
4-29
4 Graphics
4-30
The prop_name cell array contains two elements.
prop_name(1) = {'Marker'};
prop_name(2) = {'MarkerFaceColor'};
The prop_values cell array contains 10 values; five values for the Marker
property and five values for the MarkerFaceColor property. Notice that
prop_values is a two-dimensional cell array. The first dimension indicates
which handle in h the values apply to and the second dimension indicates
which property the value is assigned to.
prop_values(1,1) = {'s'};
prop_values(1,2) = {get(h(1),'Color')};
prop_values(2,1) = {'d'};
prop_values(2,2) = {get(h(2),'Color')};
prop_values(3,1) = {'o'};
prop_values(3,2) = {get(h(3),'Color')};
prop_values(4,1) = {'p'};
prop_values(4,2) = {get(h(4),'Color')};
prop_values(5,1) = {'h'};
prop_values(5,2) = {get(h(5),'Color')};
The MarkerFaceColor is always assigned the value of the corresponding line’s
color (obtained by getting the line’s Color property with the get command).
After defining the cell arrays, call set to specify the new property values.
set(h,prop_name,prop_values)
Handle Graphics
Finding the Handles of Existing Objects
The findobj command enables you to obtain the handles of graphics objects by
searching for objects with particular property values. With findobj you can
specify the value of any combination of properties, which makes it easy to pick
one object out of many. For example, you may want to find the blue line with
square marker having blue face color.
You can also specify which figures or axes to search, if there is more than one.
The following sections provide examples illustrating how to use findobj.
Finding All Objects of a Certain Type
Since all objects have a Type property that identifies the type of object, you can
find the handles of all occurrences of a particular type of object. For example,
h = findobj('Type','line');
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
0
5
10
15
20
25
4-31
finds the handles of all line objects.
4 Graphics
4-32
Finding Objects with a Particular Property
You can specify multiple properties to narrow the search. For example,
h = findobj('Type','line','Color','r','LineStyle',':');
finds the handles of all red, dotted lines.
Limiting the Scope of the Search
You can specify the starting point in the object hierarchy by passing the handle
of the starting figure or axes as the first argument. For example,
h = findobj(gca,'Type','text','String','\pi/2');
finds the string π/2 only within the current axes.
Using findobj as an Argument
Since findobj returns the handles it finds, you can use it in place of the handle
argument. For example,
set(findobj('Type','line','Color','red'),'LineStyle',':')
finds all red lines and sets their line style to dotted.
Graphics User Interfaces
Graphics User Interfaces
Here is a simple example illustrating how to use Handle Graphics to build user
interfaces. The statement
b = uicontrol('Style','pushbutton', ...
'Units','normalized', ...
'Position',[.5 .5 .2 .1], ...
'String','click here');
creates a push button in the center of a figure window and returns a handle to
the new object. But, so far, clicking the button does nothing. The statement
s = 'set(b,''Position'',[.8*rand .9*rand .2 .1])';
creates a string containing a command that alters the push button’s position.
Repeated execution of
eval(s)
moves the button to random positions. Finally,
set(b,'Callback',s)
installs s as the button’s callback action, so every time you click the button, it
moves to a new position.
Graphical User Interface Design Tools
MATLAB provides GUI Design Environment (GUIDE) tools that simplify the
creation of graphical user interfaces. To display the GUIDE Layout Editor,
issue the guide command.
4-33
4 Graphics
4-34
Animations
MATLAB provides two ways of generating moving, animated graphics:
“Erase Mode Method” on page 4-34—Continually erase and then redraw the
objects on the screen, making incremental changes with each redraw.
“Creating Movies” on page 4-35—Save a number of different pictures and
then play them back as a movie.
Erase Mode Method
Using the EraseMode property is appropriate for long sequences of simple plots
where the change from frame to frame is minimal. Here is an example showing
simulated Brownian motion. Specify a number of points, such as
n = 20
and a temperature or velocity, such as
s = .02
The best values for these two parameters depend upon the speed of your
particular computer. Generate n random points with (x,y) coordinates between
-
1
/2 and +
1
/2.
x = rand(n,1)-0.5;
y = rand(n,1)-0.5;
Plot the points in a square with sides at -1 and +1. Save the handle for the
vector of points and set its EraseMode to xor. This tells the MATLAB graphics
system not to redraw the entire plot when the coordinates of one point are
changed, but to restore the background color in the vicinity of the point using
an “exclusive or” operation.
h = plot(x,y,'.');
axis([-1 1 -1 1])
axis square
grid off
set(h,'EraseMode','xor','MarkerSize',18)
Now begin the animation. Here is an infinite while loop, which you can
eventually exit by typing Ctrl+c. Each time through the loop, add a small
amount of normally distributed random noise to the coordinates of the points.
Animations
Then, instead of creating an entirely new plot, simply change the XData and
YData properties of the original plot.
while 1
drawnow
x = x + s*randn(n,1);
y = y + s*randn(n,1);
set(h,'XData',x,'YData',y)
end
How long does it take for one of the points to get outside the square? How long
before all the points are outside the square?
Creating Movies
If you increase the number of points in the Brownian motion example to
something like n = 300 and s = .02, the motion is no longer very fluid; it takes
too much time to draw each time step. It becomes more effective to save a
predetermined number of frames as bitmaps and to play them back as a movie.
?1 ?0.5 0 0.5 1
?1
?0.8
?0.6
?0.4
?0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
4-35
4 Graphics
4-36
First, decide on the number of frames, say
nframes = 50;
Next, set up the first plot as before, except using the default EraseMode
(normal).
x = rand(n,1)-0.5;
y = rand(n,1)-0.5;
h = plot(x,y,'.');
set(h,'MarkerSize',18);
axis([-1 1 -1 1])
axis square
grid off
Generate the movie and use getframe to capture each frame.
for k = 1:nframes
x = x + s*randn(n,1);
y = y + s*randn(n,1);
set(h,'XData',x,'YData',y)
M(k) = getframe;
end
Finally, play the movie 30 times.
movie(M,30)
5
Programming with
MATLAB
Flow Control (p. 5-2) Use flow control constructs including if, switch and
case, for, while, continue, and break.
Other Data Structures (p. 5-7) Work with multidimensional arrays, cell arrays,
character and text data, and structures.
Scripts and Functions (p. 5-17) Write scripts and functions, use global variables, pass
string arguments to functions, use eval to evaluate text
expressions, vectorize code, preallocate arrays, reference
functions using handles, and use function that operate on
functions.
Demonstration Programs Included
with MATLAB (p. 5-28)
View and run demos.
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-2
Flow Control
MATLAB has several flow control constructs:
“if” on page 5-2
“switch and case” on page 5-3
“for” on page 5-4
while on page 5-5
“continue” on page 5-5
“break” on page 5-6
if
The if statement evaluates a logical expression and executes a group of
statements when the expression is true. The optional elseif and else
keywords provide for the execution of alternate groups of statements. An end
keyword, which matches the if, terminates the last group of statements. The
groups of statements are delineated by the four keywords—no braces or
brackets are involved.
The MATLAB algorithm for generating a magic square of order n involves
three different cases: when n is odd, when n is even but not divisible by 4, or
when n is divisible by 4. This is described by
if rem(n,2) ~= 0
M = odd_magic(n)
elseif rem(n,4) ~= 0
M = single_even_magic(n)
else
M = double_even_magic(n)
end
In this example, the three cases are mutually exclusive, but if they weren’t, the
first true condition would be executed.
It is important to understand how relational operators and if statements work
with matrices. When you want to check for equality between two variables, you
might use
if A == B, ...
Flow Control
This is legal MATLAB code, and does what you expect when A and B are scalars.
But when A and B are matrices, A == B does not test if they are equal, it tests
where they are equal; the result is another matrix of 0’s and 1’s showing
element-by-element equality. In fact, if A and B are not the same size, then A ==
B is an error.
The proper way to check for equality between two variables is to use the
isequal function,
if isequal(A,B), ...
Here is another example to emphasize this point. If A and B are scalars, the
following program will never reach the unexpected situation. But for most
pairs of matrices, including our magic squares with interchanged columns,
none of the matrix conditions A > B, A < B or A == B is true for all elements
and so the else clause is executed.
if A > B
'greater'
elseif A < B
'less'
elseif A == B
'equal'
else
error('Unexpected situation')
end
Several functions are helpful for reducing the results of matrix comparisons to
scalar conditions for use with if, including
isequal
isempty
all
any
switch and case
The switch statement executes groups of statements based on the value of a
variable or expression. The keywords case and otherwise delineate the
groups. Only the first matching case is executed. There must always be an end
to match the switch.
5-3
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-4
The logic of the magic squares algorithm can also be described by
switch (rem(n,4)==0) + (rem(n,2)==0)
case 0
M = odd_magic(n)
case 1
M = single_even_magic(n)
case 2
M = double_even_magic(n)
otherwise
error('This is impossible')
end
Note Unlike the C language switch statement, MATLAB switch does not
fall through. If the first case statement is true, the other case statements do
not execute. So, break statements are not required.
for
The for loop repeats a group of statements a fixed, predetermined number of
times. A matching end delineates the statements.
for n = 3:32
r(n) = rank(magic(n));
end
r
The semicolon terminating the inner statement suppresses repeated printing,
and the r after the loop displays the final result.
It is a good idea to indent the loops for readability, especially when they are
nested.
for i = 1:m
for j = 1:n
H(i,j) = 1/(i+j);
end
end
Flow Control
while
The while loop repeats a group of statements an indefinite number of times
under control of a logical condition. A matching end delineates the statements.
Here is a complete program, illustrating while, if, else, and end, that uses
interval bisection to find a zero of a polynomial.
a = 0; fa = -Inf;
b = 3; fb = Inf;
while b-a > eps*b
x = (a+b)/2;
fx = x^3-2*x-5;
if sign(fx) == sign(fa)
a = x; fa = fx;
else
b = x; fb = fx;
end
end
x
The result is a root of the polynomial x
3
- 2x - 5, namely
x =
2.09455148154233
The cautions involving matrix comparisons that are discussed in the section on
the if statement also apply to the while statement.
continue
The continue statement passes control to the next iteration of the for or while
loop in which it appears, skipping any remaining statements in the body of the
loop. In nested loops, continue passes control to the next iteration of the for
or while loop enclosing it.
5-5
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-6
The example below shows a continue loop that counts the lines of code in the
file, magic.m, skipping all blank lines and comments. A continue statement is
used to advance to the next line in magic.m without incrementing the count
whenever a blank line or comment line is encountered.
fid = fopen('magic.m','r');
count = 0;
while ~feof(fid)
line = fgetl(fid);
if isempty(line) | strncmp(line,'%',1)
continue
end
count = count + 1;
end
disp(sprintf('%d lines',count));
break
The break statement lets you exit early from a for or while loop. In nested
loops, break exits from the innermost loop only.
Here is an improvement on the example from the previous section. Why is this
use of break a good idea?
a = 0; fa = -Inf;
b = 3; fb = Inf;
while b-a > eps*b
x = (a+b)/2;
fx = x^3-2*x-5;
if fx == 0
break
elseif sign(fx) == sign(fa)
a = x; fa = fx;
else
b = x; fb = fx;
end
end
x
Other Data Structures
Other Data Structures
This section introduces you to some other data structures in MATLAB,
including
“Multidimensional Arrays” on page 5-7
“Cell Arrays” on page 5-9
“Characters and Text” on page 5-11
“Structures” on page 5-14
Multidimensional Arrays
Multidimensional arrays in MATLAB are arrays with more than two
subscripts. They can be created by calling zeros, ones, rand, or randn with
more than two arguments. For example,
R = randn(3,4,5);
creates a 3-by-4-by-5 array with a total of 3x4x5 = 60 normally distributed
random elements.
A three-dimensional array might represent three-dimensional physical data,
say the temperature in a room, sampled on a rectangular grid. Or, it might
represent a sequence of matrices, A
(k)
, or samples of a time-dependent matrix,
A(t). In these latter cases, the (i, j)th element of the kth matrix, or the t
k
th
matrix, is denoted by A(i,j,k).
MATLAB and Dürer’s versions of the magic square of order 4 differ by an
interchange of two columns. Many different magic squares can be generated by
interchanging columns. The statement
p = perms(1:4);
generates the 4! = 24 permutations of 1:4. The kth permutation is the row
vector, p(k,:). Then
A = magic(4);
M = zeros(4,4,24);
for k = 1:24
M(:,:,k) = A(:,p(k,:));
end
5-7
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-8
stores the sequence of 24 magic squares in a three-dimensional array, M. The
size of M is
size(M)
ans =
4 4 24
It turns out that the third matrix in the sequence is Dürer’s.
M(:,:,3)
ans =
16 3 2 13
5 10 11 8
9 6 7 12
4 15 14 1
The statement
sum(M,d)
computes sums by varying the dth subscript. So
sum(M,1)
16 3 2 13
8 11 10 8
12 7 6 12
1 14 15 1
16 2 13 3
10 8 11 10
6 12 7 6
15 1 14 15
13 16 2 3
8 5 11 10
12 9 7 6
1 4 14 15
16 2 3 13
5 11 10 8
9 7 6 12
4 14 15 1
.
.
.
Other Data Structures
is a 1-by-4-by-24 array containing 24 copies of the row vector
34 34 34 34
and
sum(M,2)
is a 4-by-1-by-24 array containing 24 copies of the column vector
34
34
34
34
Finally,
S = sum(M,3)
adds the 24 matrices in the sequence. The result has size 4-by-4-by-1, so it looks
like a 4-by-4 array.
S =
204 204 204 204
204 204 204 204
204 204 204 204
204 204 204 204
Cell Arrays
Cell arrays in MATLAB are multidimensional arrays whose elements are
copies of other arrays. A cell array of empty matrices can be created with the
cell function. But, more often, cell arrays are created by enclosing a
miscellaneous collection of things in curly braces, {}. The curly braces are also
used with subscripts to access the contents of various cells. For example,
C = {A sum(A) prod(prod(A))}
produces a 1-by-3 cell array. The three cells contain the magic square, the row
vector of column sums, and the product of all its elements. When C is displayed,
you see
C =
[4x4 double] [1x4 double] [20922789888000]
5-9
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-10
This is because the first two cells are too large to print in this limited space, but
the third cell contains only a single number, 16!, so there is room to print it.
Here are two important points to remember. First, to retrieve the contents of
one of the cells, use subscripts in curly braces. For example, C{1} retrieves the
magic square and C{3} is 16!. Second, cell arrays contain copies of other arrays,
not pointers to those arrays. If you subsequently change A, nothing happens to
C.
Three-dimensional arrays can be used to store a sequence of matrices of the
same size. Cell arrays can be used to store a sequence of matrices of different
sizes. For example,
M = cell(8,1);
for n = 1:8
M{n} = magic(n);
end
M
produces a sequence of magic squares of different order.
M =
[ 1]
[ 2x2 double]
[ 3x3 double]
[ 4x4 double]
[ 5x5 double]
[ 6x6 double]
[ 7x7 double]
[ 8x8 double]
Other Data Structures
You can retrieve our old friend with
M{4}
Characters and Text
Enter text into MATLAB using single quotes. For example,
s = 'Hello'
The result is not the same kind of numeric matrix or array we have been
dealing with up to now. It is a 1-by-5 character array.
16 2 3 13
5 11 10 8
9 7 6 12
4 14 15 1
.
.
.
64 2 3 61 60 6 7 57
9 55 54 12 13 51 50 16
17 47 46 20 21 43 42 24
40 26 27 37 36 30 31 33
32 34 35 29 28 38 39 25
41 23 22 44 45 19 18 48
49 15 14 52 53 11 10 56
8 58 59 5 4 62 63 1
1 3
4 2
8 1 6
3 5 7
4 9 2
1
5-11
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-12
Internally, the characters are stored as numbers, but not in floating-point
format. The statement
a = double(s)
converts the character array to a numeric matrix containing floating-point
representations of the ASCII codes for each character. The result is
a =
72 101 108 108 111
The statement
s = char(a)
reverses the conversion.
Converting numbers to characters makes it possible to investigate the various
fonts available on your computer. The printable characters in the basic ASCII
character set are represented by the integers 32:127. (The integers less than
32 represent nonprintable control characters.) These integers are arranged in
an appropriate 6-by-16 array with
F = reshape(32:127,16,6)';
The printable characters in the extended ASCII character set are represented
by F+128. When these integers are interpreted as characters, the result
depends on the font currently being used. Type the statements
char(F)
char(F+128)
and then vary the font being used for the MATLAB Command Window. Select
Preferences from the File menu. Be sure to try the Symbol and Wingdings
fonts, if you have them on your computer. Here is one example of the kind of
output you might obtain.
!"#$%&'()*+,-./
0123456789:;<=>?
@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO
PQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_
‘abcdefghijklmno
pqrstuvwxyz{|}~-
¢£§ ? ?' ·¤??
Other Data Structures
– ¥ ???…‰“” ?
???—???
- ????
? ′?`?¨??ˇ
fl?″
Concatenation with square brackets joins text variables together into larger
strings. The statement
h = [s, ' world']
joins the strings horizontally and produces
h =
Hello world
The statement
v = [s; 'world']
joins the strings vertically and produces
v =
Hello
world
Note that a blank has to be inserted before the 'w' in h and that both words in
v have to have the same length. The resulting arrays are both character arrays;
h is 1-by-11 and v is 2-by-5.
To manipulate a body of text containing lines of different lengths, you have two
choices—a padded character array or a cell array of strings. The char function
accepts any number of lines, adds blanks to each line to make them all the
same length, and forms a character array with each line in a separate row. For
example,
S = char('A','rolling','stone','gathers','momentum.')
produces a 5-by-9 character array.
S =
A
rolling
stone
gathers
5-13
momentum.
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-14
There are enough blanks in each of the first four rows of S to make all the rows
the same length. Alternatively, you can store the text in a cell array. For
example,
C = {'A';'rolling';'stone';'gathers';'momentum.'}
is a 5-by-1 cell array.
C =
'A'
'rolling'
'stone'
'gathers'
'momentum.'
You can convert a padded character array to a cell array of strings with
C = cellstr(S)
and reverse the process with
S = char(C)
Structures
Structures are multidimensional MATLAB arrays with elements accessed by
textual field designators. For example,
S.name = 'Ed Plum';
S.score = 83;
S.grade = 'B+'
creates a scalar structure with three fields.
S =
name: 'Ed Plum'
score: 83
grade: 'B+'
Other Data Structures
Like everything else in MATLAB, structures are arrays, so you can insert
additional elements. In this case, each element of the array is a structure with
several fields. The fields can be added one at a time,
S(2).name = 'Toni Miller';
S(2).score = 91;
S(2).grade = 'A-';
or an entire element can be added with a single statement.
S(3) = struct('name','Jerry Garcia',...
'score',70,'grade','C')
Now the structure is large enough that only a summary is printed.
S =
1x3 struct array with fields:
name
score
grade
There are several ways to reassemble the various fields into other MATLAB
arrays. They are all based on the notation of a comma-separated list. If you type
S.score
it is the same as typing
S(1).score, S(2).score, S(3).score
This is a comma-separated list. Without any other punctuation, it is not very
useful. It assigns the three scores, one at a time, to the default variable ans and
dutifully prints out the result of each assignment. But when you enclose the
expression in square brackets,
[S.score]
it is the same as
[S(1).score, S(2).score, S(3).score]
which produces a numeric row vector containing all the scores.
ans =
83 91 70
5-15
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-16
Similarly, typing
S.name
just assigns the names, one at a time, to ans. But enclosing the expression in
curly braces,
{S.name}
creates a 1-by-3 cell array containing the three names.
ans =
'Ed Plum' 'Toni Miller' 'Jerry Garcia'
And
char(S.name)
calls the char function with three arguments to create a character array from
the name fields,
ans =
Ed Plum
Toni Miller
Jerry Garcia
Scripts and Functions
Scripts and Functions
Topics covered in this section are
“Scripts” on page 5-18
“Functions” on page 5-19
“Global Variables” on page 5-21
“Passing String Arguments to Functions” on page 5-21
“The eval Function” on page 5-23
“Vectorization” on page 5-23
“Preallocation” on page 5-24
“Function Handles” on page 5-24
“Function Functions” on page 5-25
MATLAB is a powerful programming language as well as an interactive
computational environment. Files that contain code in the MATLAB language
are called M-files. You create M-files using a text editor, then use them as you
would any other MATLAB function or command.
There are two kinds of M-files:
Scripts, which do not accept input arguments or return output arguments.
They operate on data in the workspace.
Functions, which can accept input arguments and return output arguments.
Internal variables are local to the function.
If you’re a new MATLAB programmer, just create the M-files that you want to
try out in the current directory. As you develop more of your own M-files, you
will want to organize them into other directories and personal toolboxes that
you can add to your MATLAB search path.
If you duplicate function names, MATLAB executes the one that occurs first in
the search path.
To view the contents of an M-file, for example, myfunction.m, use
type myfunction
5-17
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-18
Scripts
When you invoke a script, MATLAB simply executes the commands found in
the file. Scripts can operate on existing data in the workspace, or they can
create new data on which to operate. Although scripts do not return output
arguments, any variables that they create remain in the workspace, to be used
in subsequent computations. In addition, scripts can produce graphical output
using functions like plot.
For example, create a file called magicrank.m that contains these MATLAB
commands.
% Investigate the rank of magic squares
r = zeros(1,32);
for n = 3:32
r(n) = rank(magic(n));
end
r
bar(r)
Typing the statement
magicrank
causes MATLAB to execute the commands, compute the rank of the first 30
magic squares, and plot a bar graph of the result. After execution of the file is
complete, the variables n and r remain in the workspace.
Scripts and Functions
Functions
Functions are M-files that can accept input arguments and return output
arguments. The name of the M-file and of the function should be the same.
Functions operate on variables within their own workspace, separate from the
workspace you access at the MATLAB command prompt.
A good example is provided by rank. The M-file rank.m is available in the
directory
toolbox/matlab/matfun
You can see the file with
type rank
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
5-19
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-20
Here is the file.
function r = rank(A,tol)
% RANK Matrix rank.
% RANK(A) provides an estimate of the number of linearly
% independent rows or columns of a matrix A.
% RANK(A,tol) is the number of singular values of A
% that are larger than tol.
% RANK(A) uses the default tol = max(size(A)) * norm(A) * eps.
s = svd(A);
if nargin==1
tol = max(size(A)') * max(s) * eps;
end
r = sum(s > tol);
The first line of a function M-file starts with the keyword function. It gives the
function name and order of arguments. In this case, there are up to two input
arguments and one output argument.
The next several lines, up to the first blank or executable line, are comment
lines that provide the help text. These lines are printed when you type
help rank
The first line of the help text is the H1 line, which MATLAB displays when you
use the lookfor command or request help on a directory.
The rest of the file is the executable MATLAB code defining the function. The
variable s introduced in the body of the function, as well as the variables on the
first line, r, A and tol, are all local to the function; they are separate from any
variables in the MATLAB workspace.
This example illustrates one aspect of MATLAB functions that is not ordinarily
found in other programming languages – a variable number of arguments. The
rank function can be used in several different ways.
rank(A)
r = rank(A)
r = rank(A,1.e-6)
Many M-files work this way. If no output argument is supplied, the result is
stored in ans. If the second input argument is not supplied, the function
Scripts and Functions
computes a default value. Within the body of the function, two quantities
named nargin and nargout are available which tell you the number of input
and output arguments involved in each particular use of the function. The rank
function uses nargin, but does not need to use nargout.
Global Variables
If you want more than one function to share a single copy of a variable, simply
declare the variable as global in all the functions. Do the same thing at the
command line if you want the base workspace to access the variable. The global
declaration must occur before the variable is actually used in a function.
Although it is not required, using capital letters for the names of global
variables helps distinguish them from other variables. For example, create an
M-file called falling.m.
function h = falling(t)
global GRAVITY
h = 1/2*GRAVITY*t.^2;
Then interactively enter the statements
global GRAVITY
GRAVITY = 32;
y = falling((0:.1:5)');
The two global statements make the value assigned to GRAVITY at the
command prompt available inside the function. You can then modify GRAVITY
interactively and obtain new solutions without editing any files.
Passing String Arguments to Functions
You can write MATLAB functions that accept string arguments without the
parentheses and quotes. That is, MATLAB interprets
foo a b c
as
foo('a','b','c')
However, when using the unquoted form, MATLAB cannot return output
arguments. For example,
5-21
legend apples oranges
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-22
creates a legend on a plot using the strings apples and oranges as labels. If you
want the legend command to return its output arguments, then you must use
the quoted form.
[legh,objh] = legend('apples','oranges');
In addition, you cannot use the unquoted form if any of the arguments is not a
string.
Constructing String Arguments in Code
The quoted form enables you to construct string arguments within the code.
The following example processes multiple data files, August1.dat,
August2.dat, and so on. It uses the function int2str, which converts an
integer to a character, to build the filename.
for d = 1:31
s = ['August' int2str(d) '.dat'];
load(s)
% Code to process the contents of the d-th file
end
A Cautionary Note
While the unquoted syntax is convenient, it can be used incorrectly without
causing MATLAB to generate an error. For example, given a matrix A,
A =
0 -6 -1
6 2 -16
-5 20 -10
The eig command returns the eigenvalues of A.
eig(A)
ans =
-3.0710
-2.4645+17.6008i
-2.4645-17.6008i
Scripts and Functions
The following statement is not allowed because A is not a string; however,
MATLAB does not generate an error.
eig A
ans =
65
MATLAB actually takes the eigenvalues of ASCII numeric equivalent of the
letter A (which is the number 65).
The eval Function
The eval function works with text variables to implement a powerful text
macro facility. The expression or statement
eval(s)
uses the MATLAB interpreter to evaluate the expression or execute the
statement contained in the text string s.
The example of the previous section could also be done with the following code,
although this would be somewhat less efficient because it involves the full
interpreter, not just a function call.
for d = 1:31
s = ['load August' int2str(d) '.dat'];
eval(s)
% Process the contents of the d-th file
end
Vectorization
To obtain the most speed out of MATLAB, it’s important to vectorize the
algorithms in your M-files. Where other programming languages might use for
or DO loops, MATLAB can use vector or matrix operations. A simple example
involves creating a table of logarithms.
x = .01;
for k = 1:1001
y(k) = log10(x);
x = x + .01;
end
5-23
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-24
A vectorized version of the same code is
x = .01:.01:10;
y = log10(x);
For more complicated code, vectorization options are not always so obvious.
When speed is important, however, you should always look for ways to
vectorize your algorithms.
Preallocation
If you can’t vectorize a piece of code, you can make your for loops go faster by
preallocating any vectors or arrays in which output results are stored. For
example, this code uses the function zeros to preallocate the vector created in
the for loop. This makes the for loop execute significantly faster.
r = zeros(32,1);
for n = 1:32
r(n) = rank(magic(n));
end
Without the preallocation in the previous example, the MATLAB interpreter
enlarges the r vector by one element each time through the loop. Vector
preallocation eliminates this step and results in faster execution.
Function Handles
You can create a handle to any MATLAB function and then use that handle as
a means of referencing the function. A function handle is typically passed in an
argument list to other functions, which can then execute, or evaluate, the
function using the handle.
Construct a function handle in MATLAB using the at sign, @, before the
function name. The following example creates a function handle for the sin
function and assigns it to the variable fhandle.
fhandle = @sin;
Evaluate a function handle using the MATLAB feval function. The function
plot_fhandle, shown below, receives a function handle and data, and then
performs an evaluation of the function handle on that data using feval.
function x = plot_fhandle(fhandle, data)
plot(data, feval(fhandle, data))
Scripts and Functions
When you call plot_fhandle with a handle to the sin function and the
argument shown below, the resulting evaluation produces a sine wave plot.
plot_fhandle(@sin, -pi:0.01:pi)
Function Functions
A class of functions called “function functions” works with nonlinear functions
of a scalar variable. That is, one function works on another function. The
function functions include
Zero finding
Optimization
Quadrature
Ordinary differential equations
MATLAB represents the nonlinear function by a function M-file. For example,
here is a simplified version of the function humps from the matlab/demos
directory.
function y = humps(x)
y = 1./((x-.3).^2 + .01) + 1./((x-.9).^2 + .04) - 6;
Evaluate this function at a set of points in the interval 0 ≤ x ≤ 1 with
x = 0:.002:1;
y = humps(x);
Then plot the function with
plot(x,y)
5-25
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-26
The graph shows that the function has a local minimum near x = 0.6. The
function fminsearch finds the minimizer, the value of x where the function
takes on this minimum. The first argument to fminsearch is a function handle
to the function being minimized and the second argument is a rough guess at
the location of the minimum.
p = fminsearch(@humps,.5)
p =
0.6370
To evaluate the function at the minimizer,
humps(p)
ans =
11.2528
Numerical analysts use the terms quadrature and integration to distinguish
between numerical approximation of definite integrals and numerical
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Scripts and Functions
integration of ordinary differential equations. MATLAB quadrature routines
are quad and quadl. The statement
Q = quadl(@humps,0,1)
computes the area under the curve in the graph and produces
Q =
29.8583
Finally, the graph shows that the function is never zero on this interval. So, if
you search for a zero with
z = fzero(@humps,.5)
you will find one outside the interval
z =
-0.1316
5-27
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-28
Demonstration Programs Included with MATLAB
MATLAB includes many demonstration programs that highlight various
features and functions. For a complete list of the demos, type
demo
A list of demos for the products you have installed appears in the Demos tab of
the Help browser. Select the product, category, and demo. Information to run
the demo and view the source code appears in the display pane.
In addition to the demos listed below, the Demos tab includes playback demos
which illustrate how certain graphical user interfaces work.
Some demos listed here are not directly available via the Help browser Demos
tab. The description includes “(command line)”. To run these demos, type the
demo name at the command line.
Note Many of the demonstrations use multiple windows and require you to
press a key in the MATLAB Command Window to continue through the
demonstration.
The following tables list the current demonstration programs that are
available, organized into these categories:
“Matrix Demonstration Programs” on page 5-29
“Numeric Demonstration Programs” on page 5-30
“Graphics Demonstration Programs” on page 5-31
“Language Demonstration Programs” on page 5-32
“Differential Equations Demonstration Programs” on page 5-33
“Gallery Demonstration Programs” on page 5-34
“Miscellaneous Demonstration Programs” on page 5-36
Demonstration Programs Included with MATLAB
Matrix Demonstration Programs
airfoil Graphical demonstration of sparse matrix from NASA
airfoil
buckydem Connectivity graph of the Buckminster Fuller geodesic
dome
delsqdemo Finite difference Laplacian on various domains
eigmovie Symmetric eigenvalue movie
eigshow Graphical demonstration of matrix eigenvalues
intro Introduction to basic matrix operations in MATLAB
inverter Demonstration of the inversion of a large matrix
matdems Matrix computations demos
matmanip Introduction to matrix manipulation
rrefmovie Computation of reduced row echelon form
sepdemo Separators for a finite element mesh
sparsity Demonstration of the effect of sparsity orderings
5-29
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-30
Numeric Demonstration Programs
basic-fit Playback demo shows how to use Basic Fitting
interface
bench MATLAB benchmark (command line)
census Prediction of the U.S. population in the year 2000
e2pi Two-dimensional, visual solution to the problem
“Which is greater, e
π
or π
e
?”
fftdemo Use of the FFT function for spectral analysis
fitdemo Nonlinear curve fit with simplex algorithm
funfuns Demonstration of functions operating on other
functions
lotkademo Example of ordinary differential equation solution
odedemo Solving differential equations
odeexamples Differential equation examples
qhulldemo Tessellation and interpolation of scattered data
quaddemo Adaptive quadrature
quake Loma Prieta earthquake
spline2d Demonstration of ginput and spline in two
dimensions
sunspots Demonstration of the fast Fourier transform (FFT)
function in MATLAB used to analyze the variations in
sunspot activity
Demonstration Programs Included with MATLAB
Graphics Demonstration Programs
ardemo Axis aspect ratio
colormenu Demonstration of adding a colormap to the current
figure (command line)
cplxdemo Maps of functions of a complex variable
earthmap Graphical demonstrations of earth’s topography
graf2d Two-dimensional XY plots in MATLAB
graf2d2 Three-dimensional XYZ plots in MATLAB
graf3d Demonstration of Handle Graphics for surface plots
grafcplx Demonstration of complex function plots in MATLAB
hndlaxis Demonstration of Handle Graphics for axes
hndlgraf Demonstration of Handle Graphics for line plots
imagedemo Demonstration of MATLAB image capability
imageext Demonstration of changing and rotating image
colormaps
lorenz Graphical demonstration of the orbit around the
Lorenz chaotic attractor
penny Several views of the penny data
splashdemo Splash screen plot
teapotdemo Newell teapot
transpdemo Changing transparency
vibes Vibrating L-shaped membrane movie
volvec Volume visualization
xfourier Graphical demonstration of Fourier series expansion
5-31
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-32
Language Demonstration Programs
xpklein Klein bottle demo
xpsound Demonstration of MATLAB sound capability
nddemo Manipulating multidimensional arrays
strucdem Structures
xplang Introduction to the MATLAB language
Demonstration Programs Included with MATLAB
Differential Equations Demonstration Programs
amp1dae Stiff DAE - electrical circuit (command line)
ballode Equations of motion for a bouncing ball (part of
odeexamples)
batonode ODE with time- and state-dependent mass matrix (part
of odeexamples)
brussode Stiff problem, modeling a chemical reaction,
Brusselator (part of odeexamples)
burgersode ODE with strongly state-dependent mass matrix (part
of odeexamples)
ddex1 Straightforward DDE example (command line)
ddex2 Cardiovascular model with discontinuities (command
line)
emdenbvp Emden's equation, a singular BVP (command line)
fem1ode Stiff problem with a time-dependent mass matrix (part
of odeexamples)
fem2ode Stiff problem with a time-independent mass matrix
(part of odeexamples)
fsbvp Falkner-Skan BVP on an infinite interval (command
line)
hb1dae Stiff DAE from a conservation law (command line)
hb1ode Stiff problem 1 of Hindmarsh and Byrne (part of
odeexamples)
mat4bvp Fourth eigenfunction of Mathieu's equation (command
line)
odedemo Demonstration of the ODE suite integrators (command
line)
5-33
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-34
Automation Client Interface (COM)
Gallery Demonstration Programs
orbitode Restricted three-body problem (part of odeexamples)
pdex1 Simple PDE that illustrates the straightforward
formulation, computation, and plotting of the solution
(command line)
pdex2 Involves discontinuities (command line)
pdex3 Requires computing values of the partial derivative
(command line)
pdex4 System of two PDEs whose solution has boundary
layers at both ends of the interval and changes rapidly
for small t (command line)
pdex5 System of PDEs with step functions as initial
conditions (command line)
rigidode Euler equations of a rigid body without external forces
(part of odeexamples)
shockbvp Solution with a shock layer near x = 0 (command line)
twobvp BVP with exactly two solutions (command line)
vdpode Parameterizable van der Pol equation, stiff for large μ
(part of odeexamples)
mlcomiface Automation client interface
cruller Graphical demonstration of a cruller
klein1 Graphical demonstration of a Klein bottle
knot Tube surrounding a three-dimensional knot
Demonstration Programs Included with MATLAB
logo Graphical demonstration of the MATLAB L-shaped
membrane logo
modes Graphical demonstration of 12 modes of the L-shaped
membrane
quivdemo Graphical demonstration of the quiver function
spharm2 Graphical demonstration of spherical surface harmonic
tori4 Graphical demonstration of four-linked, unknotted tori
finddemo Command that finds available demos for individual
toolboxes
helpfun Utility function for displaying help text conveniently
membrane The MathWorks logo
peaks Sample function of two variables
pltmat Command that displays a matrix in a figure window
5-35
5 Programming with MATLAB
5-36
Miscellaneous Demonstration Programs
Getting More Information
The MathWorks Web site (http://www.mathworks.com) contains numerous
M-files that have been written by users and MathWorks staff. These are
accessible by selecting Downloads. Also, Technical Notes, which is accessible
from our Technical Support Web site (http://www.mathworks.com/support),
contains numerous examples on graphics, mathematics, API, Simulink, and
others.
chaingui Matrix chain multiplication
codec Alphabet transposition coder/decoder
crulspin Spinning cruller movie
fifteen Sliding puzzle
life Conway’s Game of Life
logospin Movie of the MathWorks logo spinning
makevase Demonstration of a surface of revolution
quatdemo Quaternion rotation
spinner Colorful lines spinning through space
soma Soma cube
travel Traveling salesman problem
truss Animation of a bending bridge truss
wrldtrv Great circle flight routes around the globe
xpbombs Minesweeper game
xphide Visual perception of objects in motion
xpquad Superquadrics plotting demonstration
Index
debugging M-files 2-14
I-1
Symbols
: operator 3-7
A
algorithms
vectorizing 5-23
animation 4-34
annotating plots 4-14
ans 3-4
Application Program Interface (API) 1-3
Array Editor 2-12
array operators 3-22
arrays 3-18, 3-21
cell 5-9
character 5-11
columnwise organization 3-24
concatenating 3-16
creating in M-files 3-15
deleting rows and columns 3-17
deleting rows or columns 3-17
elements 3-10
generating with functions and operators 3-14
listing contents 3-10
loading from external data files 3-15
multidimensional 5-7
notation for elements 3-10
preallocating 5-24
structure 5-14
variable names 3-10
arrow keys for editing commands 3-30
aspect ratio of axes 4-11
axes 4-10
axis
labels 4-12
titles 4-12
axis 4-10
B
bookmarking documentation 2-9
break 5-6
C
case 5-3
cell arrays 5-9
char 5-13
character arrays 5-11
characteristic polynomial 3-21
colon operator 3-7
colormap 4-20
colors
lines for plotting 4-4
Command History 2-6
command line editing 3-30
Command Window 2-5
complex numbers, plotting 4-6
concatenating
arrays 3-16
strings 5-13
concatenation 3-16
configuring the desktop 2-4
constants
special 3-12
contents in Help browser 2-9
continue 5-5
continuing statements on multiple lines 3-30
control keys for editing commands 3-30
current directory 2-10
Current Directory browser 2-10
D
Index
I-2
deleting array elements 3-17
demo
viewing and running 5-28
demonstration programs 5-28
demos, running from the Start button 2-7
desktop for MATLAB 2-3
desktop tools 2-5
determinant of matrix 3-19
development environment 2-1
diag 3-5
display pane in Help browser 2-9
documentation 2-7
E
editing command lines 3-30
editing plots
interactively 4-15
Editor/Debugger 2-14
eigenvalue 3-20
eigenvector 3-20
elements of arrays 3-10
entering matrices 3-3
environment 2-1
erase mode 4-34
eval 5-23
executing MATLAB 2-2
exiting MATLAB 2-2
exporting data 2-16
expressions 3-10, 3-13
evaluating 5-23
external programs, running from MATLAB 2-6
F
favorites in Help browser 2-9
figure 4-8
figure windows 4-8
with multiple plots 4-9
find 3-27
finding in a page 2-9
finding object handles 4-31
fliplr 3-6
floating-point numbers 3-11
flow control 5-2
for 5-4
format
of output display 3-28
format 3-28
function 5-20
function functions 5-25
function handles
defined 5-24
using 5-26
function M-file 5-17, 5-19
function of two variables 4-18
functions 3-11, 5-19
built-in 3-12
variable number of arguments 5-20
G
global variables 5-21
graphical user interface 4-33
graphics
2-D 4-2
files 4-24
handle graphics 4-26
objects 4-26
printing 4-24
grids 4-12
Index
H
Handle Graphics 1-3, 4-26
finding handles 4-31
Help browser 2-7
help functions 2-10
Help Navigator 2-9
hierarchy of graphics objects 4-27
hold 4-7
I
if 5-2
images 4-22
imaginary number 3-10
Import Wizard 2-16
importing data 2-16
index in Help browser 2-9
K
keys for editing in Command Window 3-30
L
Launch Pad 2-7
legend 4-3
legend, adding to plot 4-3
library
mathematical function 1-3
lighting 4-20
limits, axes 4-10
line continuation 3-30
line styles of plots 4-4
load 3-15
loading arrays 3-15
local variables 5-20
log of functions used 2-6
logical vectors 3-26
M
magic 3-8
magic square 3-4
markers 4-5
MAT-file 4-22
mathematical function library 1-3
mathematical functions
listing advanced 3-11
listing elementary 3-11
listing matrix 3-11
MATLAB
Application Program Interface 1-3
history 1-2
language 1-3
mathematical function library 1-3
overview 1-2
matrices 3-18
creating 3-14
entering 3-3
matrix 3-2
antidiagonal 3-6
determinant 3-19
main diagonal 3-5
singular 3-19
swapping columns 3-8
symmetric 3-18
transpose 3-4
matrix multiplication 3-19
mesh plot 4-18
M-file 1-2, 3-15, 5-17
creating 5-17
for creating arrays 3-15
function 5-17, 5-19
script 5-17
I-3
Index
M-files 2-14
Microsoft Word and access to MATLAB 2-16
movies 4-35
multidimensional arrays 5-7
multiple data sets, plotting 4-3
multiple plots per figure 4-9
multivariate data, organizing 3-24
N
newsgroup for MATLAB users 2-10
Notebook 2-16
numbers 3-10
floating-point 3-11
O
object properties 4-28
objects
finding handles 4-31
graphics 4-26
online help, viewing 2-7
operator 3-11
colon 3-7
output
controlling format 3-28
suppressing 3-30
overlaying plots 4-7
P
path 2-11
plot 4-2
plot editing mode
overview 4-15
plots
editing 4-14
plotting
adding legend 4-3
adding plots 4-7
annotating 4-14
basic 4-2
complex data 4-6
complex numbers 4-6
contours 4-8
line colors 4-4
line styles 4-4
lines and markers 4-5
mesh and surface 4-18
multiple data sets 4-3
multiple plots 4-9
PostScript 4-24
preallocation 5-24
preferences 2-4
print 4-24
printing
graphics 4-24
Profiler 2-15
Property Editor
interface 4-16
Q
quitting MATLAB 2-2
R
revision control systems, interfacing to MATLAB
2-16
running functions 2-5
running MATLAB 2-2
I-4
Index
S
scalar expansion 3-25
scientific notation 3-10
script M-file 5-17
scripts 5-18
search path 2-11
searching documentation 2-9
semicolon to suppress output 3-30
shutting down MATLAB 2-2
singular matrix 3-19
source control systems, interfacing to MATLAB
2-16
special constants 3-12
infinity 3-12
not-a-number 3-12
Start button 2-7
starting MATLAB 2-2
statements
continuing on multiple lines 3-30
executing 5-23
strings
concatenating 5-13
structures 5-14
subplot 4-9
subscripting
with logical vectors 3-26
subscripts 3-6
sum 3-4
suppressing output 3-30
surface plot 4-18
switch 5-3
symmetric matrix 3-18
T
text 5-11
TIFF 4-25
title
figure 4-12
toolbox 1-2
tools in the desktop 2-5
transpose 3-4
U
user interface 4-33
building 4-33
V
variables 3-10
global 5-21
local 5-20
vector 3-2
logical 3-26
preallocating 5-24
vectorization 5-23
version control systems, interfacing to MATLAB
2-16
viewing documentation 2-9
visibility of axes 4-11
W
while 5-5
windows for plotting 4-8
windows in MATLAB 2-3
wireframe 4-18
surface 4-18
Word and access to MATLAB 2-16
word processing access to MATLAB 2-16
workspace 2-12
Workspace browser 2-12
I-5
Index
X
xor erase mode 4-34
I-6