EEE 391 Basics of Signals and Systems

MATLAB Exercises with Solutions

1 Filling Arrays or Creating Signals in MATLAB

Create the following arrays or matrices in MATLAB without using any “for” loop:

• A 1 × 100 array consisting of all zero elements (Hint: Use the command zeros)
Answer: a=zeros(1,100);

• A 10 × 12 matrix consisting of all ones (Hint: Use the command ones)

Answer: a=ones(10,12);

• 5 × 5 identity matrix (Hint: Use the command eye)

Answer: a=eye(5);

• A 1 × 100 array whose elements are 1, 2, 3, 4, . . . , 99, 100

Answer: a=[1:100]; or a=[1:1:100];

• A 1 × 4 array whose elements are 7, 17, 27, 37

Answer: a=[7:10:37];

• A 1 × 100 array whose elements are 3, 7, 11, 15, . . . , 395, 399

Answer: a=[3:4:399];

• A 1 × 100 time array t such that t(1,1)=0, t(1,2)=0.01, . . . , t(1,100)=0.99

Answer: t=[0:0.01:0.99];

• A 1×100 array x such that x(1,1)=cos(2π5×0), x(1,2)=cos(2π5×0.01), . . . , x(1,10)=cos(2π5×

0.99)
Answer: x=cos(2*pi*5*[0:0.01:0.99]); or x=cos(2*pi*5*t); where t is as created in
the previous item

2 Functions with array inputs in MATLAB

Let t denote the time array whose elements are −1, −0.999, −0.998, . . . , −0.001, 0, 0.001, . . . , 0.998, 0.999, 1.
Recall that we can create t by issuing the command t = [−1 : 0.001 : 1];. On this time grid,
compute the values of the following functions without using any “for” loop. Use as few lines of
code as you can.

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• x(t) = 1
Answer: x=ones(size(t));

• x(t) = 2t + 3
Answer: x=2*t+3;

• x(t) = 3t2 − 5t + 1
Answer: x=3*t.ˆ2-5*t+1;
2t2 −4t+1
• x(t) = 3t3 −2t2 +5t+2
Answer: x=(2*t.ˆ2-4*t+1)./(3*t.ˆ3-2*t.ˆ2+5*t+2);

• x(t) = 2 cos(2π5t + 1)
Answer: x=2*cos(2*pi*5*t+1);

• x(t) = sin3 (2π7t)

Answer: x=sin(2*pi*7*t).ˆ3;

• x(t) = cos5 (2π2t2 )

Answer: x=cos(2*pi*2*t.ˆ2).ˆ5;

• x(t) = 3 sin(2π 2t4t+3

2 +1 ) − 4

Answer: x=3*sin(2*pi*(4*t+3)./(2*t.ˆ2+1))-4;
q 
2|t|+1
2 cos
4t2 +1
• x(t) = 3 sin3 (5t−2)+4

Answer: x=(2*cos(((2*abs(t)+1)./(4*t.ˆ2+1)).ˆ0.5))./(3*sin(5*t-2).ˆ3+4);

• x(t) = ej2π10t
Answer: x=exp(j*2*pi*10*t);
2
• x(t) = ejπ3t
Answer: x=exp(j*pi*3*t.ˆ2);
t2
• x(t) = e− 2
Answer: x=exp(-t.ˆ2/2);

• x(t) = e−|t|
Answer: x=exp(-abs(t));

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3 Extracting Parts of a Matrix or an Array
Let x= [x1 x2 x3 x4 . . . x98 x99 x100 ]. Prepare the following arrays using single-line commands:
To test your codes, you may take x= [1 2 3 . . . 98 99 100].

• y = [x22 x23 x24 . . . x55 x56 ]

Answer: y=x(22:1:56);

• y = [x61 x60 x59 . . . x42 x41 ]

Answer: y=x(61:-1:41);

• y = [x2 x4 x6 . . . x98 x100 ]

Answer: y=x(2:2:100);

• y = [x1 x3 x5 . . . x97 x99 ]

Answer: y=x(1:2:99);

• y = [x12 x19 x26 . . . x75 x82 ]

Answer: y=x(12:7:82);

• y = [x97 x92 x87 . . . x37 x32 ]

Answer: y=x(97:-5:32);

• y = [x1 0 0 0 x2 0 0 0 x3 0 0 0 . . . x99 0 0 0 x100 0 0 0]

Answer: y=zeros(1,400); y(1:4:400)=x;

• y = [0 0 x1 0 0 0 x2 0 0 0 x3 0 . . . 0 0 x99 0 0 0 x100 0]
Answer: y=zeros(1,400); y(3:4:400)=x;

• y = [0 x100 0 0 x99 0 0 x98 0 . . . 0 x2 0 0 x1 0]

Answer: y=zeros(1,300); y(2:3:300)=x(100:-1:1);

• y = [0 0 x42 0 0 0 0 x46 0 0 0 0 x50 0 0 . . . 0 0 x78 0 0 0 0 x82 0 0]

Answer: y=zeros(1,55); y(3:5:53)=x(42:4:82);

• y = [0 0 x95 0 0 x91 0 0 x87 . . . 0 0 x39 0 0 x35 ]

Answer: y=zeros(1,48); y(3:3:48)=x(95:-4:35);

4 Some Common Programming Mistakes

4.1
Suppose x of size 1×1000 represents a signal x(t), and y of size 1×1000 represents a signal y(t).
Let g represent the signal g(t) defined as g(t) = x(t) y(t). The following code tries to compute
g but it contains a mistake so that MATLAB gives an error message. Find the mistake. What
is the message that MATLAB gives?

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 g=x*y

Answer: MATLAB gives the error message:

Error using mtimes, Inner matrix dimensions must agree.
The reason is, the command g=x*y orders MATLAB to perform the matrix multiplica-
tion of x and y. However, under our definitions, the sizes of x and y are not suitable for matrix
multiplication, so MATLAB gives an error message. Actually, even if their size were suitable,
our intention is not to compute the matrix multiplication of x and y, but rather compute a
new 1 × 1000 vector (that we name g) such that g(1)=x(1)y(1), g(2)=x(2)y(2) and so on.
The correct command to accomplish this is:
g=x.*y
Note that when we introduce the dot before the multiplication symbol, MATLAB under-
stands that we want to perform elementwise multiplication of x and y, and gives us the
desired g.

4.2
Suppose we have an image x[m, n] that is stored in a matrix x of size 512 × 512. Let y[m, n] =
x2 [m, n]. Now, we want to compute the matrix y which is again 512 × 512 and which contains
y[m, n]. The following code tries to do it but it contains a mistake. What is the mistake?
y=x ˆ 2

Answer: MATLAB recognizes the above command as the matrix multiplication of x

with itself. That is, y computed in this manner represents a new matrix which is obtained
as y=x*x. Note that since x is 512 by 512, the matrix multiplication x*x is defined and
computed by MATLAB. However, this is not what we want. We actually want the relation
between x and y to be y(1,1)=x(1,1)*x(1,1), y(1,2)=x(1,2)*x(1,2) and so on. The correct
command should be:
y=x .ˆ 2

4.3
The following code tries to sum 100 complex sinusoids over a time array given by t. The
frequencies are contained within an array named omega and the amplitudes are contained
within A. However, it contains a bug. Find it.
MySum=zeros(size(t));
for j=1:100
MySum=MySum+A(j)*exp(j*omega(j)*t);
end

Answer: Note that the letter j is defined on the second line as the counter parameter of
the
√ for loop. On the third line, it is also used to represent the unit imaginary √ number, i.e.,
−1. However, since j is defined on line 2, MATLAB does not recognize it as −1 any more,
so MySum turns out to be quite different than intended. √
One practice of avoiding such bugs is to reserve the letter j for −1 and use different letters
or names for the counters of loops. A better way to write the above code is:
MySum=zeros(size(t));

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 for i=1:100
MySum=MySum+A(i)*exp(j*omega(i)*t);
end

4.4
Suppose we have a 1 × 1000 array named x which consists only of zeroes and ones. Our purpose
is to search the array from the beginning and set an alarm when the number of ones reach 10.
The following code tries to do this but it contains a mistake. In particular, one line of code
appears in a place where it should not be. Find that line and put it in the correct position so
that the code works.
alarm=0;
index=0;
while(alarm==0)
count=0;
index=index+1;
if x(index)==1 count=count+1; end
if count==10 alarm=1; end
end

Answer: The given code sets count = 0 in each iteration of the for loop, so it cannot
calculate the number of ones. To correct the mistake, the line “count=0;” must be moved
anywhere before the for loop so that it increases by one when the value 1 is encountered in the
array x.

4.5
The following code tries to form a periodic signal x(t) by adding the Fourier series components
for −10 ≤ k ≤ 10. Suppose the coefficients are given within a 1 × 21 array whose name is
X. However, the code contains a small programming mistake so that MATLAB gives an error
message. Find that mistake. What is the error message that MATLAB gives?
x=zeros(size(t));
for k=-10:1:10
x=x+X(k)*exp(j*2*pi*k*t/T);
end

Answer: Suppose the program recently enters the for loop, so that k=-10 as indicated on
line 2. On line 3, MATLAB tries to fetch the −10th value of X. The problem is, index values
must be positive integers in MATLAB. In other words, X(1), X(2),..., X(21) are all defined
but X(-10) is not defined. Therefore, MATLAB returns the error:
Index exceeds matrix dimensions
The correct way to write the code is as follows:
x=zeros(size(t));
for k=-10:1:10
x=x+X(k+11)*exp(j*2*pi*k*t/T);
end