MATLAB Lab 2

Visualization and Programming

 Outline
(1) Plotting Continued
(2) Scripts
(3) Flow Control
 Cartesian Plots 50
10

We have already seen the plot function

40
10


30
10
 x=-pi:pi/100:pi;
y=cos(4*x).*sin(10*x).*exp(-abs(x));
20

 10

 plot(x,y,'k-'); 10
10

0
10
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

 The same syntax applies for semilog and loglog plots

 semilogx(x,y,'k');
 semilogy(y,'r.-'); Use semilogx if you want logarithmic x-axis
 loglog(x,y); Use semilogy if you want logarithmic y-axis
Use loglog if you want both axes logarithmic

Try this
>> x = 0:100;
>> semilogy(x, exp(x), ‘k.-’);
 Playing with the Plot

to select lines
and delete or
change to see all plot
properties tools at once
to slide the plot
to zoom in/out around
 Line and Marker Options
 Everything on a line can be customized
 plot(xi,yi,linespec,’property name’…
……,’property value’
0.8

0.6

0.4

 See doc line for a full list of 0.2

properties that can be specified
0

-0.2

Try this -0.4

>> x = 0:pi/100:2*pi -0.6

>> y = sin(x)
>> plot (x,y, ‘k.-‘, ‘LineWidth’, 2, -0.8
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
‘MarkerEdgeColor’, ‘k’, ‘MakerFaceColor’,
‘g’, ‘MarkerSize’,10);
 Labels
 To add titles and labels using the command -line
 title('Stress-Strain');
 xlabel('Force (N)');

 For multiple lines, add a legend entry for each line

 legend('Steel','Aluminum','Tungsten');

 Can specify font and size for the text Tip: Use … to break long
commands across
 ylabel('Distance (m)','FontSize',14,...
multiple lines
'FontName','Helvetica'); like this

 To put parameter values into labels, need to use num2str and concatenate:
 str = [‘Strength of ' num2str(d) 'cm diameter rod'];
 title(str)
 Axis
 A grid makes it easier to read values
 grid on

 xlim sets only the x axis limits

 xlim([-pi pi]);
 ylim sets only the y axis limits
 ylim([-1 1]);

 To specify both at once, use axis:

 axis([-pi pi -1 1]);
 sets the x axis limits between -pi and pi and the y axis limits between -1 and 1
 Learn more on advanced figure customization from HELP
 Axis Modes
 Built-in axis modes

 axis square
 makes the current axis look like a box
 axis tight
 fits axes to data
 axis equal
 makes x and y scales the same
 axis xy
 puts the origin in the bottom left corner (default)
 axis ij
 puts the origin in the top left corner (for viewing matrices)
 Multiple Plots in one Figure
 Use the figure command to open a new figure
 figure
 or activate an open figure
 figure(1)

 To have multiple axes in one figure

 subplot(2,3,1) or subplot(231)
 makes a figure with 2 rows and three columns of axes, and activates the first axis for
plotting
 each axis can have labels, a legend, and a title
 subplot(2,3,4:6)
 activating a range of axes fuses them into one

 To close existing figures

 close([1 3])
 closes figures 1 and 3
 close all
 closes all figures (useful in scripts/functions)
 Figures: Exercise
 Open a figure and plot a sine wave over two periods with data
points at 0, pi/8, 2pi/8… . Use black squares as markers and a
dashed red line of thickness 2 as the line

 Save the figure as a pdf

 View with pdf viewer.

>> figure;
>> plot(0:pi/8:4*pi,sin(0:pi/4:4*pi),'rs--',...
'LineWidth',2,'MarkerFaceColor','k');
 3D Line Plots

 We can plot in 3 dimensions just as easily as in 2

 Use the plot3 function
Try this:
>> time = 0:0.001:4*pi;
>> x = sin(time);
>> y = cos(time);
>> z = time;
>> plot3(x,y,z,’k’,’Linewidth’,2)

10

 Use tools on figure to rotate it 5

 Can set limits on all 3 axes 0

-5

 xlim, ylim, zlim -10

1
0.5 1
0 0.5
0
-0.5 -0.5
-1 -1
 Surface Plots

 It is more common to visualize surfaces in 3D

f  x, y   sin  x  cos  y 
 Example: x    ,  ; y    , 

 surf puts vertices at specified points in space x,y,z, and

connects all the vertices to make a surface

 The vertices can be denoted by matrices X,Y,Z

 surf
 Make the x and y vectors
 x=-pi:0.1:pi; meshgrid is equivalent to executing a
 y=-pi:0.1:pi; nested loop (to scan through all values of x
and y) to plot a surface
The rows of the output array X are copies of
the vector x,
 Use meshgrid to make matrices columns of the output array Y are copies of
the vector y
 [X,Y]=meshgrid(x,y);

 To get function values,

evaluate the matrices
 Z =sin(X).*cos(Y);

 Plot the surface

 surf(X,Y,Z)
 surf Options
 See help surf for more options
 There are three types of surface shading
 shading faceted
 shading flat
 shading interp
 contour
 You can make surfaces two-dimensional by using contour
 contour(X,Y,Z,'LineWidth',2)
Try this:
 takes same arguments as surf >> x = -pi:0.01:pi;
>> y = -pi:0.01:pi;
 color indicates height >> [X,Y] = meshgrid(x,y);
 can modify linestyle properties >> Z = cos(X).*sin(Y);
>> [C,h] = contour(X,Y,Z)
 hold on >> clabel(C,h)

 mesh(X,Y,Z) Each contour line is labelled

 Exercise: 3-D Plots
 Plot exp(-0.1(x^2+y^2))*sin(xy) for x,y in [–2*pi,2*pi]
with interpolated shading
>> x=-2*pi:0.1:2*pi;
>> y=-2*pi:0.1:2*pi;
>> [X,Y]= meshgrid(x,y);
>> Z =exp(-0.1*(X.^2+Y.^2)).*sin(X.*Y);
>> surf(X,Y,Z);
>> shading interp

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

-0.2

-0.4

-0.6

-0.8
8
6
4 8
2 6
4
0 2
-2 0
-4 -2
-4
-6 -6
-8 -8
 Specialized Plotting Functions
 Matlab has a lot of specialized plotting functions
 polar-to make polar plots
 polar(0:0.01:2*pi, cos((0:0.01:2*pi)*2))
 bar-to make bar graphs
 bar(1:10,rand(1,10));
 quiver-to add velocity vectors to a plot
 [X,Y]=meshgrid(1:10,1:10);
 quiver(X,Y,rand(10),rand(10));
 stairs-plot piecewise constant functions
 stairs(1:10,rand(1,10));
 see help on these functions for syntax
 doc specgraph – for a complete list
 Outline
(1) Plotting Continued
(2) Scripts
(3) Flow Control
 Scripts: Overview
 Scripts are
 written in the MATLAB editor
 saved as m-files (.m extension)
 evaluated line by line

 To create an m-file from command-line

 edit myScript.m
 or click
 Scripts: the Editor
* Means that it's not saved
Line numbers
m-file path
Debugging tools

Help file

Comments

Possible breakpoints
 Scripts: Good Practice
 Take advantage of "smart indent" option

 Keep code clean

 Use built-in functions
 Vectorize, vectorize, vectorize
 When making large matrices, allocate space first
 Use nan or zeros to make a matrix of the desired size

 Keep constants at the top of the m-file

 COMMENT!
 Anything following a % is seen as a comment
 The first contiguous comment becomes the script's help file
 Comment thoroughly to avoid wasting time later
 Exercise: Scripts

 A student has taken three exams. The performance on

the exams is random (uniform between 0 and 100)
 The first exam is worth 20%, the second is worth 30%,
and the final is worth 50% of the grade
 Calculate the student's overall score
 Save script as practiceScript.m and run a few times

>> scores=rand(1,3)*100;
>> weights=[0.2 0.3 0.5];
>> overall=scores*weights’
 Outline
(1) Plotting Continued
(2) Scripts
(3) Flow Control
 Relational Operators
 Matlab uses mostly standard relational operators
 equal ==
 not equal ~=
 greater than >
 less than <
 greater or equal >=
 less or equal <=
 Logical operators normal bitwise
 And & &&
 Or | ||
 Not ~
 Xor xor

 Boolean values: zero is false, nonzero is true

 See help . for a detailed list of operators
 if/else/elseif
 Basic flow-control, common to all languages
 Matlab syntax is somewhat unique
IF ELSE ELSEIF
if cond if cond if cond1
commands commands1 commands1
end else elseif cond2
commands2 commands2
end else
Conditional statement:
evaluates to true or false commands3
end

• No need for parentheses: command blocks are between

reserved words
 for

 for loops: use for a definite number of iterations

 MATLAB syntax:
Loop variable

for n=1:100
commands
end Command block

 The loop variable

 Is defined as a vector
 Is a scalar within the command block
 Does not have to have consecutive values
 The command block
 Anything between the for line and the end
 while
 The while is like a more general for loop:
 Don't need to know number of iterations

WHILE

while cond
commands
end

 The command block will execute while the conditional

expression is true
Infinite Loop
 while true
commands
end
 Exercise: Control-Flow
 Write a function to calculate the factorial of an integer N using a loop (you can use
a for or while loop). If the input is less than 0, return NaN.
 Write a script that takes a number from the user and calculates the factorial of the
number using the function you made in the above step infinitely (Use the input
function. Go through its help)
 Visualize the surface defined by the function f(x,y) = x . exp(-x^2 – y^2) in MATLAB.
x  [-2, 2], y  [-2,2]. Step size is 0.2 for both x and y.
function a = factorial(N)
if N<0,
a=nan,
else
a = 1;
for k=1:N
a = a*k;
end
end

[X,Y] = meshgrid(-2:.2:2, -2:.2:2);

2:.2:2);
Z = X .* exp(-X.^2 - Y.^2);
surf(X,Y,Z)