THE CHEAT SHEET

SCIENCE
PROGRAMMING
ACADEMY WITH MATLAB
MATLAB (MATrix LABoratory) 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.

Small variables like x and y will be either row or column vectors and A will always be a matrix.

DISCRETISATION MANIPULATION OF VARIABLES

clc Clear command window a = 500 Define variable a to be 500
clear (all) Clear all variables x = [3, 1, 4] Set x to be the row vector [3, 1, 4]
close all Close all plots x = [3; 1; 4] Set x to be the column vector [3, 1, 4]T
clf Clear all plots A = [3, 1, 4, 1;
doc command Extensive help page for command 5, 9, 2, 6; Set A to be a 3 × 4 matrix
help command Quick help page for command 5, 3, 5, 8]
x(2) = 7 Change x from [3, 1, 4] to [3, 7, 4]
%This is a comment Indicates a comment
A(2,1) = 0 Change A(2,1) from 5 to 0
a = 5; Semicolon suppresses output
whos Lists all variables defined
disp('text') Print text BASIC ARITHMETIC & FUNCTIONS
save 'file.mat' save 'file.mat' 1*2, 3+4, 5-6, 7/8 Multiply, add, subtract and divide
load 'file.mat' Load variables from file.mat 28
^
Compute 28
diary on Record input/output to file diary sqrt(16) Compute √16
log(5) Compute ln(5)
ENTRIES OF MATRICES & VECTORS log10(100) Compute log10(100)
abs(-10) Compute | − 10|
abs(x) The absolute value of x
sin(2*pi/6) Compute sin(2π/6)
eps Floating point accuracy
ceil(3.8) Outputs 4.0
1e6 106
floor(3.8) Outputs 3.0
sum(x) Sums elements in x
round Rounds to the nearest integer
CELL MANIPULATION
Rounds to nearest integer greater than or
ceil equal to that element
x = cell(a, b) a x b cell array
fix Rounds to the nearest integer toward zero x{n,m} Access cell element n,m
floor Rounds to the nearest integer less than or cell2mat(x) Transforms cells to matrix
equal to that element

OPERATIONS ON MATRICES & VECTORS

CONSTRUCT MATRICES & VECTORS x+5 Add 5 to every element of x

zeros(5, 5) Create a 5 × 5 matrix of zeros (Pre-Allocation) x+y Elementwise addition of two vectors x and y

ones(6, 7) Create a 6 × 7 matrix of ones 10 * x Multiply every element of x by 10

eye(3) Create a 3 × 3 identity matrix A*y Product of a matrix and vector

eye(9, 10) Make a 9 × 10 identity matrix A*B Product of two matrices

Element-wise product of two matrices
linspace Generates N points between X and Y A .* B (Important if matrices are not quadratic)
(X, Y, N)
A^4 Square matrix A to the fourth power
logspace Creates a vector with N1 elements
(X1, Y1, N1) where the log of the spacing is evenly A .^ 4 Every element of A to the fourth power
increasing between X1 and Y1 cos(A) Compute the cosine of every element of A
1:99 Row vector of 1, 2, . . . , 88, 99 Compute the absolute values of every
abs(A)
element of A
A' Transpose of A
det(A) Compute the determinant of A
size(A) Get the size of A

This summary sheet is part of a course offered at the Science

The Science Academy Academy covering various science & engineering topics.
courses.jousefmurad.com For more information, please visit courses.jousefmurad.com