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A Quick Introduction To Loops in Matlab: See Pp. 102-105 For A Description of The Fprintf Statement

Loops are used to repeat calculations in Matlab. For loops repeat a block of code a predetermined number of times, specified by a start value, end value, and optional increment of a loop counter variable. While loops repeat a block of code an unknown number of times until a condition is met. For loops are often used when the number of repetitions is known. Loops can initialize values before repeating, perform calculations on each repetition, and finalize results after repeating.

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50 views

A Quick Introduction To Loops in Matlab: See Pp. 102-105 For A Description of The Fprintf Statement

Loops are used to repeat calculations in Matlab. For loops repeat a block of code a predetermined number of times, specified by a start value, end value, and optional increment of a loop counter variable. While loops repeat a block of code an unknown number of times until a condition is met. For loops are often used when the number of repetitions is known. Loops can initialize values before repeating, perform calculations on each repetition, and finalize results after repeating.

Uploaded by

Koushik Kashyap
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

for Loops

ME 352, Fall 2007

page 1/3

A Quick Introduction to Loops in Matlab


Loops are used to repeat sequences of calculations. In Matlab, loops can be implemented with a for ...end construct or a while ...end construct. In terms of their ability to repeat a series of calculations, for loops and while loops are equivalent.

for Loops
for loops are often used when a sequence of operations is to be performed a predetermined number of times. For example computing the average of a list of numbers requires adding up a known number of values. Syntax Loop counter incremented by one:
for i = startValue:endValue x = ... y = ... . . . end

i is the loop counter. On the rst pass through the loop, i is set to startValue. On the second pass through the loop i is set to startValue+1. The Matlab statements between the for and the end are evaluated until i>endValue Example 1 Print the square root of the rst n integers

n = 5; for i=1:n fprintf(%6d end

%8.4f\n,i,sqrt(i));

See pp. 102105 for a description of the fprintf statement.

Loop counter incremented by specied amount:


for i = startValue:increment:endValue x = ... y = ... . . . end

The increment can be any positive or negative number Example 2 Print the square root of the even integers up to n

n = 10; for i=2:2:n fprintf(%6d end

%8.4f\n,i,sqrt(i));

What happens when n = 9 or n = 11?

c 2007, Gerald Recktenwald

September 27, 2007

for Loops

ME 352, Fall 2007

page 2/3

Increments can be positive


for i = 0:2:10 ... end

or negative
for i = 5:-1:-5 ... end

The startValue, increment, and endValue parameters do not need to be integers Example 3 Print the sine and cosine of a list of angles
for a=0:pi/6:pi d = a*180/pi; % convert to degrees fprintf(%8.3f %8.1f %9.4f %9.4f\n,a,d,sin(a),cos(a)); end

You could add a title row to this table by inserting


fprintf( a (rad) d (deg) sin(a) cos(a)\n)

before the start of the for loop.

Pre- and Post-loop Processing Many loops involve manipulating quantities that are dened before the loop begins. Example 4 Compute the sum of the rst n integers
n = s = for s end 10; 0; i=1:n = s + i;

The variable s must exist, and have a meaningful value before the loop begins. Otherwise the expression s + i cannot be evaluated. The expression s = s + i is not a mathematical equation, it is an assignment. Mentally replace the = sign with an assignment arrow like . s=s+i means ss+i The statement s = 0 is called an initialization of s because it gives s its initial value before the loop starts.

c 2007, Gerald Recktenwald

September 27, 2007

for Loops

ME 352, Fall 2007

page 3/3

Loops can involve many repetitions, so printing during each pass through a loop is often impractical and undesirable. In some cases, a message or other clean-up work is done after the loop is nished. Example 5 Compute the average of a list of numbers
n = 500; x = rand(1,n); s = 0; for i=1:n s = s + x(i); end xbar = s/n;

The expression x = rand(1,n) creates a row vector of n pseudo-random numbers. The expression s = s + x(i) adds the ith element of x to the sum. As in Example 4, an initial value of s must be assigned before the loop starts. The average value (xbar) can only be computed after the loop is nished.

c 2007, Gerald Recktenwald

September 27, 2007

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