ME 262

Numerical Analysis Sessional

Introduction to MATLAB

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology

6/7/2023
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 Overview (1)

• Basic M ATLAB Operations

⊲ Starting M ATLAB
⊲ Using M ATLAB as a calculator
⊲ Introduction to variables and functions
• Matrices and Vectors: All variables are matrices.
⊲ Creating matrices and vectors
⊲ Subscript notation
⊲ Colon notation

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 Overview (2)

• Additional Types of Variables

⊲ Complex numbers
⊲ Strings
⊲ Polynomials
• Working with Matrices and Vectors
⊲ Some basic linear algebra
⊲ Vectorized operations
⊲ Array operators
• Managing the Interactive Environment
• Plotting

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 Installing MATLAB

• BUET students can use authorized licensed MATLAB software by creating an

account using their official email IDs.

•First create an account at ‘mathworks’ in the following link:

https://www.mathworks.com/mwaccount/register?uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffanyv88.com%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fwww.mat
hworks.com%2Fproducts%2Fmatlab.html

• Then you can download, install and sign in with your official email ID.
https://www.mathworks.com/downloads/web_downloads/

(Search in google with “download matlab” and you will easily get these links)

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 Starting MATLAB

• Double click on the MATLAB icon, or on unix systems type "matlab"

at the command line.
• After startup Matlab displays a command window that is used to
enter commands and display text-only results.
• Enter Commands at the command window:

• Matlab responds to commands by printing text in the command

window, or by opening a figure window for graphical output.

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 Matlab Desktop

Recent Directory Menu:

Used to change current
working directory.

Current Directory: change

directories
Command Prompt:
Enter typed commands here.
Text results are displayed here.

This layout can be changed by clicking and dragging any

of the sections from one position to another. Sections
can also be hidden or removed from layout from the
Workspace, layout button at the top
view values of variables in
the workspace

NMM: Interactive Computing with Matlab

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 M ATLAB as a Calculator (1)

Enter formulas at the command prompt

>> 2 + 6 - 4 (press return(i.e. enter) after ‘‘4’’)
ans =
4

>> ans/2
ans =
2

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 M ATLAB as a Calculator (1)

Define and use variables

>> a = 5
a =
5

>> b = 6
b =
6

>> c =
b/a c =
1.2000

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 Built-in Variables

p i ( = π) and ans are a built-in variables

>> p i
ans =
3.141
6

>>
sin(ans/4)
ans =
0.7071

Note: There is no “degrees” mode. All angles are measured in radians.

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 Built-in Functions

Many standard mathematical functions, such as sin, cos, log, and

log10, are built-in
>> l o g ( 2 5 6 ) log(x) computes the natural logarithm of x
ans =
5.5452

>> log10(256) log10(x) is the base 10 logarithm

ans =
2.4082

>> log2(256) log2(x) is the base 2 logarithm

ans =
8

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 Ways to Get Help

• Use on-line help to request info on a specific function

>> help sqrt

• In M ATLAB version 6 and later the doc function opens the on-line version of the
manual. This is very helpful for more complex commands.

>> doc plot

• Use l o o k f o r to find functions by keywords

>> lookfor functionName

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 Online Help (1)

Syntax:
help functionName

Example:
>> help log

produces→

The help function provides a compact summary of how to use a command. Use
the doc function to get more in-depth information.

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 Online Help (2)

The help browser opens when you type a doc command:

>> doc plot

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 Looking for Functions

Syntax:
lookfor string

searches first line of function descriptions for “string”.

Example:
>> lookfor cosine

produces:

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 Strategies for Interactive Computing

• Use the command window for short sequences of calculations

• Later we’ll learn how to build reusable functions for more complex tasks.
• The command window is good for testing ideas and running sequences
of operations contained in functions
• Any command executed in the command window can also be used in a
function.

Let’s continue with a tour of interactive computing.

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 Suppress Output with Semicolon (1)

Results of intermediate steps can be suppressed with semicolons.

Example: Assign values to x, y, and z, but only display the value of z in
the command window:
>> x = 5 ;
>> y = s q r t ( 5 9 ) ;
>> z = l o g ( y ) + x^0.25

z =
3.5341

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 Suppress Output with Semicolon (2)

Type variable name and omit the semicolon to print the value of a variable
(that is already defined)
>> x = 5 ;
>> y = s q r t ( 5 9 ) ;
>> z = l o g ( y ) + x^0.25
z =
3.5341
>> y
y =
7.6811 ( = l o g ( s q r t ( 5 9 ) ) + 5^0.25 )

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 Multiple Statements per Line

Use commas or semicolons to enter more than one statement at once.

Commas allow multiple statements per line without suppressing output.

>> a = 5 ; b = sin(a), c = cosh(a)

b =
-0.9589

c =
74.2099

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 M ATLAB Variables Names
Legal variable names:
• Begin with one of a–z or A–Z
• Have remaining characters chosen from a–z, A–Z, 0–9, or
• Have a maximum length of 31 characters
• Should not be the name of a built-in variable, built-in function, or
user-defined function

Examples: Note: mySum and mysum are different

xxxxxxxxx variables. M ATLAB is case
pipeRadius sensitive.
widgets_per_box
mySum
mysum

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 Built-in M ATLAB Variables (1)

Name Meaning
ans value of an expression when that expression is not assigned to
a variable
eps floating point precision
pi π, (3.141492 . . . )
realmax largest positive floating point number
realmin smallest positive floating point number
Inf ∞, a number larger than realmax,
the result of evaluating 1/0.

NaN not a number, the result of evaluating 0 / 0

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 Built-in M ATLAB Variables (2)

Rule: Only use built-in variables on the right-hand side of an expression.

Reassigning the value of a built-in variable can create problems
with built-in functions.

Exception: i and j are preassigned to −1 One or both of i or j are

often reassigned as loop indices. More on this later.

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 Matrices and Vectors

All M ATLAB variables are matrices

• A vector is a matrix with one row or one column.
• A scalar is a matrix with one row and one column.
• A character string is a row of column vector of characters.

Consequences:
• Rules of linear algebra apply to addition, subtraction and multiplication.
• Elements in the vectors and matrices are addressed with Fortran-like
subscript notation, e.g.,, x (2 ), A(4,5). Usually, this notation is clear
from context, but it can be confused with a function call,

y = sqrt(5) s q r t is a built-in function

z = f(3) Is f a function or variable?

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 Creating M ATLAB Variables

M ATLAB variables are created with an assignment statement

>> x = expression

where expressionis a legal combinations of numerical values,

mathematical operators, variables, and function calls.
The expression can involve:
• Manual entry
• Built-in functions that return matrices
• Custom (user-written) functions that return matrices
• Loading matrices from text files or “mat” files

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 Element-by-Element Creation of Matrices and Vectors (1)
A matrix, a column vector, As M ATLAB variables:
and a row vector: >> A = [ 3 2 ; 3 1 ; 1 4 ]
A =
3 2 3 2
A= 3 1 3 1
1 4
1 4
>> x = [ 5 ; 7 ; 9 ; 2 ]
x =
5 5
7 7
x=
9 9
2 2
>> v = [ 9 -3 4 1 ]
v =
v= 9 −3 4 1 9 -3 4 1

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 Element-by-Element Creation of Matrices and Vectors (2)
For manual entry, the elements in a vector are enclosed in square brackets. When
creating a row vector, separate elements with a space.

>> v = [ 7 3 9]
v =
7 3 9

Separate columns with a semicolon

>> w = [ 2 ; 6 ; 1]
w=
2
6
1

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 Element-by-Element Creation of Matrices and Vectors (3)

When assigning elements to matrix, row elements are separated by spaces,

and columns are separated by semicolons
>> A = [1 2 3 ; 5 7 11; 13 17 19]
A =
1 2 3
5 7 11
13 17 19

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 Transpose Operator (1)

Once it is created, a variable can be transformed with other operators.

The transpose operator converts a row vector to a column vector (and vice versa),
and it changes the rows of a matrix to columns.

>> v = [ 2 4 1 7 ]
v =
2 4 1 7

>> w = v ’
w=
2
4
1
7

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 Transpose Operator (2)

>> A = [ 1 2 3 ; 4 5 6 ; 7 8 9 ]
A =
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

>> B = A’
B =
1 4 7
2 5 8
3 6 9

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 Overwriting Variables

Once a variable has been created, it can be reassigned

>> x = 2 ;
>> x = x + 2
x =
4

>> y = [ 1 2 3 4 ]
y =
1 2 3 4

>> y = y ’
y =
1
2
3
4

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 Using Functions to Create Matrices and Vectors

Create vectors with built-in functions:

l i n s p a c e and logspace

Create matrices with built-in functions:

ones, zeros, eye, diag, . . .

Note that ones and zeros can also be used to create vectors.

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 Creating vectors with l i n s p a c e (1)

The l i n s p a c e function creates vectors with elements having uniformlinear spacing.

Syntax:
x = linspace(startValue,endValue)
x = linspace(startValue,endValue,nelements)
creates nelements elements between startValue and endValue. The default
value for nelements is 100

Examples:
>> u = l i n s p a c e ( 0 . 0 , 0 . 2 5 , 5 )
u =
0 0.0625 0.1250 0.1875 0.2500

>> u = l i n s p a c e ( 0 . 0 , 0 . 2 5 ) ;

Remember: Ending a statement with semicolon suppresses the output.

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 Creating vectors with l i n s p a c e (2)

Column vectors are created by appending the transpose operator to

linspace
>> v = l i n s p a c e ( 0 , 9 , 4 ) ’
v =
0
3
6
9

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 Example: A Table of Trig Functions
>> x = l i n s p a c e ( 0 , 2 * p i , 6 ) ’ ; (note transpose)
>> y = s i n ( x ) ;
>> z = c o s ( x ) ;
>> [ x y z ]
ans =
0 0 1.0000
1.2566 0.9511 0.3090
2.5133 0.5878 -0.8090
3.7699 -0.5878 -0.8090
5.0265 -0.9511 0.3090
6.2832 0 1.0000

The expressions y = s i n ( x ) and z = c o s ( x ) take advantage of

vectorization. If the input to a vectorized function is a vector or matrix, the
output is often a vector or matrix having the same shape. More on this later.

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 Creating vectors with logspace

The logspace function creates vectors with elements having uniform

logarithmic spacing.
Syntax:

x = logspace(startValue,endValue)
x = logspace(startValue,endValue,nelements)

creates nelements elements between 10 startValue and 10 endValue . The default

value of nelements is 100.
Example:
>> w = l o g s p a c e ( 1 , 4 , 4 )
w=
10 100 1000 10000

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 Functions to Create Matrices (1)

Name Operation(s) Performed

diag create a matrix with a specified diagonal entries, or extract
diagonal entries of a matrix

eye create an identity matrix

ones create a matrix filled with ones
rand create a matrix filled with random numbers
zeros create a matrix filled with zeros
linspace create a row vector of linearly spaced
elements
logspace create a row vector of logarithmically spaced elements

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 Functions to Create Matrices (2)
Use ones and zeros to set intial values of a matrix or vector.
Syntax:
A = ones(nrows,ncols)
A = zeros(nrows,ncols)

Examples:
>> D = ones(3,3)
D =
1 1 1
1 1 1
1 1 1
>> E = ones(2,4)
E =
1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1

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 Functions to Create Matrices (3)
ones and zeros are also used to create vectors. To do so, set either
nrows or ncols to 1.
>> s = o n e s ( 1 ,4 )
s =
1 1 1 1

>> t = z e r o s ( 3 , 1 )
t =
0
0
0

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 Functions to Create Matrices (4)
The eye function creates identity matrices of a specified size. It can also
create non-square matrices with ones on the main diagonal.
Syntax:
A = eye(n)
A = eye(nrows,ncols)

Examples:
>> C = eye(5)
C =
1 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 0 0
0 0 1 0 0
0 0 0 1 0
0 0 0 0 1

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 Functions to Create Matrices (5)
The optional second input argument to eye allows non-square matrices to
be created.
>> D = e ye (3,5)
D =
1 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 0 0
0 0 1 0 0

where D i , j = 1 whenever i = j.

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 Functions to Create Matrices (6)

The diag function can either create a matrix with specified diagonal
elements, or extract the diagonal elements from a matrix
Syntax:
A = diag(v)
v = diag(A)

Example: Use dia g to create a matrix

>> v = [ 1 2 3 ] ;
>> A = d i a g ( v )
A =
1 0 0
0 2 0
0 0 3

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 Functions to Create Matrices (7)
Example: Use diag to extract the diagonal of a matrix
>> B = [ 1 : 4 ; 5 : 8 ; 9 : 1 2 ]
B =
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12

>> w = d i a g ( B )
w=
1
6
11

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 Functions to Create Matrices (8)

The action of the dia g function depends on the characteristics and

number of the input(s). This polymorphic behavior of M ATLAB functions
is common. Refer to the on-line documentation for the possible variations.
>> A = d i a g ( [ 3 2 1 ] ) Create a matrix with a specified diagonal
A =
3 0 0
0 2 0
0 0 1

>> B = [ 4 2 2 ; 3 6 9 ; 1 1 7 ] ;
>> v = d i a g ( B ) Extract the diagonal of a matrix
v =
4
6
7

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 Subscript Notation (1)

If A is a matrix, A ( i , j ) selects the element in the ith row and jth column.
Subscript notation can be used on the right-hand side of an expression to
refer to a matrix element.
>> A = [ 1 2 3 ; 4 5 6 ; 7 8 9 ] ;
>> b = A ( 3 , 2 )
b =
8

>> c = A ( 1 , 1 )
c =
1

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 Subscript Notation (1)

Subscript notation is also used to assign matrix elements

>> A ( 1 , 1 ) = c/b
A =
0.2500 2.0000 3.0000
4.0000 5.0000 6.0000
7.0000 8.0000 9.0000

Referring to elements beyond the dimensions the matrix results in an error

>> A = [ 1 2 3 ; 4 5 6 ; 7 8 9 ] ;
>> A ( 1 , 4 )
??? Index exceeds matrix dimensions.

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 Subscript Notation (1)

Assigning an element that is beyond the existing dimensions of the matrix

causes the matrix to be resized!
>> A = [1 2 3 ; 4 5 6 ; 7 8 9 ] ;
A =
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

>> A ( 4 , 4 ) = 11
A =
1 2 3 0
4 5 6 0
7 8 9 0
0 0 0 11

In other words, M ATLAB automatically resizes matrices on the fly.

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 Colon Notation (1)

Colon notation is very powerful and very important in the effective use of
M ATLAB . The colon is used as both an operator and as a wildcard.

Use colon notation to:

• create vectors
• refer to or extract ranges of matrix elements

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 Colon Notation (2)

Syntax:
startValue : endValue
startValue : increment : endValue

Note: startValue, increment, and endValue do not need to be integers

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 Colon Notation (3)

Creating row vectors:

>> s = 1:4
s =
1 2 3 4

>> t = 0 : 0 . 1 : 0 . 4
t =
0 0.1000 0.2000 0.3000 0.4000

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 Colon Notation (4)

Creating column vectors:

>> u = ( 1 : 5 ) ’
u =
1
2
3
4
5

>> v = 1 : 5 ’
v =
1 2 3 4 5

v is a row vector because 1 : 5 ’ creates a vector between 1 and the

transpose of 5.

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 Colon Notation (5)

Use colon as a wildcard to refer to an entire column or row

>> A = [ 1 2 3 ; 4 5 6 ; 7 8 9 ] ;
>> A ( : , 1 )
ans =
1
4
7

>> A ( 2 , : )
ans =
4 5 6

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 Colon Notation (6)

Or use colon notation to refer to subsets of columns or rows

>> A ( 2 : 3 , 1 )
ans =
4
7

>> A ( 1 : 2 , 2 : 3 )
ans =
ans =
2 3
5 6

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 Colon Notation (7)

Colon notation is often used in compact expressions to obtain results that

would otherwise require several steps.
Example:
>> A = o n e s ( 8 , 8 ) ;
>> A ( 3 : 6 , 3 : 6 ) = z e r o s ( 4 , 4 )
A =
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1
1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1
1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1
1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

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 Colon Notation (8)

Finally, colon notation is used to convert any vector or matrix to a column vector.
Example:
>> x = 1 : 4 ;
>> y = x ( : )
y =
1
2
3
4

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 Colon Notation (9)

Colon notation converts a matrix to a column vector by appending the

columns of the input matrix
>> A = r a n d ( 2 , 3 ) ;
>> v = A ( : )
v =
0.9501
0.2311
0.6068
0.4860
0.8913
0.7621
0.4565

Note: The rand function generates random elements between zero and one.
Repeating the preceding statements will, in all likelihood, produce different
numerical values for the elements of v.

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 Additional Types of Variables

Matrix elements can either be numeric values or characters. Numeric

elements can either be real or complex (imaginary).
More general variable types are available: n-dimensional arrays (where
n > 2), structs, cell arrays, and objects. Numeric (real and complex) and
string arrays of dimension two or less will be sufficient for our purposes.

Consider some simple variations on numeric and string matrices:

• Complex Numbers
• Strings
• Polynomials

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 Complex Numbers
M ATLAB automatically performs complex arithmetic
>> s q r t ( - 4 )
ans =
0 + 2.0000i

>> x = 1 + 2 * i (or, x = 1 + 2*j)

x =
1.0000 + 2.0000i

>> y = 1 - 2 * i
y =
1.0000 - 2.0000i

>> z = x*y
z =
5

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 Unit Imaginary Numbers (1)

i and j are ordinary M ATLAB variables preassigned with the value −1

>> i ^ 2
ans =
-1

Both or either i and j can be reassigned

>> i = 5 ;
>> t = 8 ;
>> u = s q r t ( i - t ) ( i - t = - 3 , not - 8 + i )
u
=
>> u*u 0 + 1.7321i
ans =
-3.0000

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 Unit Imaginary Numbers (2)

The i and j variables are often used for array subscripting. Set i (or j ) to
an integer value that is also a valid array subscript.
>> A = [1 2 ; 3 4 ] ;
>> i = 2 ;
>> A ( i , i ) = 1
A =
1 2
3 1

>> x = A ( 2 , j )
??? S u b s c r i p t i n d i c e s must e i t h e r be r e a l p o s i t i v e i n t e g e r s or l o g i c a l s .

Note: When working with complex numbers, it is a good idea to

reserve either i or j for the unit imaginary value −1.

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 Euler Notation (1)

Euler notation represents a complex number by a phaser

imaginary
z = ζe iθ
x = Re(z) = |z| cos(θ) = ζ cos(θ) iy z =  ei

y = iIm(z) = i|z| sin(θ) = iζ sin(θ)


x real

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 Functions for Complex Arithmetic (1)

Function Operation
abs Compute the magnitude of a number
a b s ( z ) is equivalent to s q r t ( r e a l ( z ) ^ 2 + imag(z)^2 )
angle Angle of complex number in Euler notation
exp If x is real, exp(x) = e x
If z is complex, exp(z) = eRe(z)(cos(Im(z) + i sin(Im(z))
conj Complex conjugate of a number
imag Extract the imaginary part of a complex number
real Extract the real part of a complex number

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 Functions for Complex Arithmetic (2)

Examples:
>> z e t a = 5 ; theta = p i / 3 ; >> x = r e a l ( z )
>> z = z e t a * e x p ( i * t h e t a ) x =
z = 2.5000
2.5000 + 4.3301i
>> y = imag(z)
>> a b s ( z ) y =
ans = 4.3301
5
>> a n g l e (z)*1 80 /pi
>> s q r t ( z * c o n j ( z ) ) ans =
ans = 60.0000
5

Remember: There is no “degrees” mode in M ATLAB . All angles are in radians.

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 Strings

• Strings are matrices with Examples:

character elements. >> f i r s t = ’ J o h n ’ ;
>> l a s t = ’ C o l t r a n e ’ ;
• String constants are enclosed in >> name = [ f i r s t , ’ ’ , l a s t ]
single quotes name =
John Coltrane
• Colon notation and subscript
operations apply >> length(name)
ans =
13

>> name(9:13)
ans =
trane

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 Functions for String Manipulation (1)

Function Operation
char Converts an integer to the character using ASCII codes, or
combines characters into a character matrix
findstr Finds one string in another string
length Returns the number of characters in a string
num2str Converts a number to string
str2num Converts a string to a number
strcmp Compares two strings
strmatch Identifies rows of a character array that begin with a string
strncmp Compares the first n elements of two strings
sprintf Converts strings and numeric values to a string

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 Functions for String Manipulation (2)

num2str converts a number to a string

>> msg1 = [ ’ T h e r e are ’ , n u m 2 s t r ( 1 0 0 / 2 . 5 4 ) , ’ inches i n a meter’]
msg1 =
There are 39.3701 inches i n a meter

For greater control over format of the number-to-string conversion, use

sprintf
>> msg2 = s p r i n t f ( ’ T h e r e are %5.2f c u b i c inches i n a l i t e r ’ , 1 0 0 0 / 2 . 5 4 ^ 3 )
msg2 =
There are 61.02 c u b i c inches i n a l i t e r

The M ATLAB s p r i n t f function is similar to the C function of the same

name, but it uses single quotes for the format string.

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 Functions for String Manipulation (3)

The char function can be used to combine strings

>> both = char(msg1,msg2)
both =
There are 39.3701 inches i n a meter
There are 61.02 c u b i c inches i n a l i t e r

or to refer to individual characters by their ASCII codes1

>> c h a r ( 4 9)
ans =
1
>> c h a r ( [ 7 7 65 84 76 65 6 6 ] )
ans =
MATLAB
1See e.g.,, www.asciicodes.com or w i k i p e d i a . o r g / w i k i / A S C I I .

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 Functions for String Manipulation (4)

Use strcmp to test whether two strings are equal, i.e., if they contain the
same sequence of characters.
>> msg1 = [ ’ T h e r e are ’ , n u m 2 s t r ( 1 0 0 / 2 . 5 4 ) , ’ inches i n a m e t e r ’ ] ;
>> msg2 = s p r i n t f ( ’ T h e r e are %5.2f c u b i c inches i n a l i t e r ’ , 1 0 0 0 / 2 . 5 4 ^ 3 ) ;
>> strcmp(msg1,msg2)
ans =
0

Compare the first n characters of two strings with strncmp

>> strncmp(msg1,msg2,9)
ans =
1

The first nine characters of both strings are “There are”, so

strncmp(msg1,msg2,9) returns 1, or true.

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 Functions for String Manipulation (5)

Locate occurances of one string in another string with f i n d s t r

>> f i n d s t r ( ’ i n ’ , m s g 1 )
ans =
19 26

>> msg1(19:20)
ans =
in

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 Polynomials
M ATLAB polynomials are stored as vectors of coefficients. The polynomial
coefficients are stored in decreasing powers of x

P n (x) = c 1 x n + c 2 x n−1 + . . . + c n x + c n + 1

Example: Evaluate x 3 − 2x + 12 at x = −1.5

Store the coefficients of the polynomial in vector c:
>> c = [ 1 0 -2 12];

Use the built-in p o l y v a l function to evaluate the polynomial.

>> p o l y v a l ( c , 1 . 5 )
ans =
12.3750

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 Functions for Manipulating Polynomials

Function Operations performed

conv Product (convolution) of two polynomials
deconv Division (deconvolution) of two polynomials
poly Create a polynomial having specified roots
polyder Differentiate a polynomial
polyval Evaluate a polynomial
polyfit Polynomial curve fit
roots Find roots of a polynomial

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 A Quick Overview of Linear Algebra in M ATLAB
The name “M ATLAB ” is a shortened form of “MATrix LABoratory”.
M ATLAB data types and syntax make it easy to perform standard
operations of linear algebra including addition, subtraction, and
multiplication of vectors and matrices.
Chapter 7 provides a detailed review of linear algebra. Here we provide a
simple introduction to some operations that are necessary for routine
calculation.
• Vector addition and subtraction
• Inner and outer products
• Vectorization
• Array operators

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 Vector Addition and Subtraction

Vector and addition and subtraction are element-by-element operations.

Example:
>> u = [10 9 8 ] ; ( u and v are row vectors)
>> v = [ 1 2 3 ] ;
>> u+v
ans =
11 11 11

>> u-v
ans =
9 7 5

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 Vector Inner and Outer Products

The inner product combines two vectors to form a scalar

𝜎 = 𝑢. 𝑣 = 𝑢𝑣 𝑇 ↔ 𝜎 = ෍ 𝑢𝑖 𝑣𝑖

The outer product combines two vectors to form a matrix

A = u T v ⇐⇒ a i , j = u i v j

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 Inner and Outer Products in M ATLAB

Inner and outer products are supported in M ATLAB as natural extensions

of the multiplication operator
>> u = [10 9 8 ] ; (u and v are row vectors)
>> v = [ 1 2 3 ] ;
>> u*v’ (inner product)
ans =
52

>> u’*v (outer product)

ans =
10 20 30
9 18 27
8 16 24

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 Vectorization

• Vectorization is the use of single, compact expressions that operate on all

elements of a vector without explicitly writing the code for a loop. The
loop is executed by the M ATLAB kernel, which is much more efficient at
evaluating a loop in interpreted M ATLAB code.
• Vectorization allows calculations to be expressed succintly so that
programmers get a high level (as opposed to detailed) view of the
operations being performed.
• Vectorization is important to make M ATLAB operate efficiently2.

2Recent versions of M ATLAB have improved the efficiency for some non-vectorized code.

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 Vectorization of Built-in Functions

Most built-in function support vectorized operations. If the input is a scalar the
result is a scalar. If the input is a vector or matrix, the output is a vector or
matrix with the same number of rows and columns as the input.
Example:
>> x = 0 : p i / 4 : p i (define a row vector)
x =
0 0.7854 1.5708 2.3562 3.1416

>> y = c o s ( x ) (evaluate cosine of each x ( i ) )

y =
1.0000 0.7071 0 -0.7071 -1.0000

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 Vectorized Calculations

More examples
>> A = p i * [ 1 2 ; 3 4 ] >> B = A/2
A = B =
3.1416 6.2832 1.5708 3.1416
9.4248 12.5664 4.7124 6.2832

>> S = s i n ( A ) >> T = s i n ( B )
S = T =
0 0 1 0
0 0 -1 0

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 Array Operators

Array operators support element-by-element operations that are not

defined by the rules of linear algebra.
Array operators have a period prepended to a standard operator.

Symbol Operation
.* element-by-element multiplication

./ element-by-element “right” division

.\ element-by-element “left” division

.^ element-by-element exponentiation

Array operators are a very important tool for writing vectorized code.

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 Using Array Operators (1)

Examples: Element-by-element multiplication and division

>> u = [ 1 2 3 ] ;
>> v = [ 4 5 6 ] ;

Use . * and . / for element-by-element multiplication and division

>> w = u.*v
w=
4 10 18

>> x = u . / v
x =
0.2500 0.4000 0.5000

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 Using Array Operators (1)

Examples: Element-by-element multiplication and division

>> u = [1 2 3 ] ;
>> v = [4 5 6 ] ;
>> y = s i n ( p i * u / 2 ) . * c o s ( p i * v / 2 )
y =
1 0 1

>> z = s i n ( p i * u / 2 ) . / c o s ( p i * v / 2 )

Warning: D i v i d e by z e r o .
z =
1 NaN 1

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 Using Array Operators (2)

Examples: Application to matrices

>> A = [1 2 3 4; 5 6 7 8];
>> B = [8 7 6 5; 4 3 2 1];
>> A.*B
ans =
8 14 18 20
20 18 14 8

>> A*B
??? E r r o r using ==> *
Inner matrix dimensions must agree

The last statement causes an error because the number of columns in A is

not equal to the number of rows in B — a requirement for A and B to be

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 Using Array Operators (3)

>> A = [ 1 2 3 4 ; 5 6 7 8 ] ;
>> B = [ 8 7 6 5 ; 4 3 2 1 ] ;
>> A*B’
ans =
60 20
164 60

The number of columns in A is equal to the number of rows in B T , so A*B’

is a legal matrix-matrix multiplication.
Array operators also apply to matrix powers.
>> A.^2
ans =
1 4 9 16
25 36 49 64

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 The M ATLAB Workspace (1)

All variables defined as the result of entering statements in the command

window, exist in the M ATLAB workspace.
At the beginning of a M ATLAB session, the workspace is empty.
Being aware of the workspace allows you to

• Create, assign, and delete variables

• Load data from external files
• Manipulate the M ATLAB path

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 The M ATLAB Workspace (2)

The c l e a r command deletes variables from the workspace. The who

command lists the names of variables in the workspace
>> c l e a r (Delete all variables from the workspace)
>> who
(No response, no variables are defined after ‘clear’)

>> a = 5; b = 2; c = 1;
>> d ( 1 ) = sqrt(b^2 - 4*a*c);
>> d(2) = -d ( 1 ) ;
>> who

Your v a r i a b l e s a r e :

a b c d

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 The M ATLAB Workspace (3)

The whos command lists the name, size, memory allocation, and the class
of each variables defined in the workspace.
>> whos

Name Size Bytes Class

a 1x1 8 double a rra y

b 1x1 8 double array
c 1x1 8 double a rra y
d 1x2 32 double a rra y (complex)

Grand t o t a l i s 5 elements u s i n g 56 bytes

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 The M ATLAB Workspace (4)

The whos command returns the array dimensions, memory requirement

and class for each variable in the workspace.
Built-in variable classes are double, char, sparse, s t r u ct , and c e l l .
The class of a variable determines the type of data that can be stored in it.
We will be dealing primarily with numeric data, which is the double class,
and occasionally with string data, which is in the char class.

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 Working with External Data Files

Write data to a file

save fileName
save fileName variable1 variable2 . . .
save fileName variable1 variable2 . . . - a s c i i

Read in data stored in matrices

load fileName
load fileName matrixVariable

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 Loading Data from External File

Example: Load data from a file and plot the data

>> load wolfSun.dat;
>> xdata = w o l f S u n ( : , 1 ) ;
>> ydata = w o l f S u n ( : , 2 ) ;
>> plot(xdata,ydata)

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 The M ATLAB Path

M ATLAB will only use those functions and data files that are in its path.
To add N:\IMAUSER\ME352\PS2 to the path, type

>> p = path;
>> path(p,’N:\IMAUSER\ME352\PS2’);

M ATLAB version 5 and later has an interactive path editor that makes it
easy to adjust the path.
The path specification string depends on the operating system. On a
Unix/Linux computer a path setting operation might look like:
>> p = path;
>> path(p,’~/matlab/ME352/ps2’);

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 Plotting

• Plotting (x, y) data

• Axis scaling and annotation

• 2D (contour) and 3D (surface) plotting

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 Plotting (x, y) Data (1)

Two dimensional plots are created with the p l o t function

Syntax:
plot(x,y)
plot(xdata,ydata,symbol)
p l o t ( x 1 ,y 1 ,x 2 ,y 2 ,. ..)
plot(x1,y1,symbol1,x2,y2,symbol2,...)

Note: x and y must have the same shape, x1 and y1 must have the
same shape, x2 and y2 must have the same shape, etc.

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 Plotting (x, y) Data (2)

1
Example: A simple line plot 0.8

>> x = l i n s p a c e ( 0 , 2 * p i ) ; 0.6

>> y = s i n ( x ) ; 0.4

>> p l o t ( x , y ) ; 0.2

−0.2

−0.4

−0.6

−0.8

−1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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 Line and Symbol Types (1)

The curves for a data set are drawn from combinations of the color,
symbol, and line types in the following table.
Color Symbols Line
y yellow . point ^ triangle (up) - solid
m magenta o circle < triangle (left) : dotted
c cyan x x-mark > triangle (right) -. dashdot
r red + plus p pentagram -- dashed
g green * star h hexagram
b blue s square
w white d diamond
k black v triangle
(down)

To choose a color/symbol/line style, chose one entry from each

column.

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 Line and Symbol Types (2)

Examples:
Put yellow circles at the data points:
plot(x,y,’yo’)

Plot a red dashed line with no symbols:

p l o t ( x , y , ’ r - -’)

Put black diamonds at each data point and connect the diamonds with black das
p l o t ( x , y , ’ k d - - ’)

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 Alternative Axis Scaling (1)

Combinations of linear and logarithmic scaling are obtained with functions

that, other than their name, have the same syntax as the p l o t function.
Name Axis scaling
loglog log 10 (y) versus log 10 (x)
plot linear y versus x
semilogx linear y versus log 10 (x)
semilogy log 10 (y) versus linear x

Note: As expected, use of logarithmic axis scaling for data sets with
negative or zero values results in a error. M ATLAB will complain
and then plot only the positive (nonzero) data.

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 Alternative Axis Scaling (2)

10
Example:
8
>> x = l i n s p a c e ( 0 , 3 ) ;
6
>> y = 1 0 * e x p ( -2*x);
>> p l o t ( x , y ) ; 4

2
0
0 1 2 3
1
10
>> s e m i l o g y ( x , y ) ;
0
10

-1
10

-2
10
0 1 2 3

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 Multiple plots per figure window (1)

The subplot function is used to create a matrix of plots in a single figure

window.
Syntax:
subplot(nrows,ncols,thisPlot)

Repeat the values of nrows and ncols for all plots in a single figure
window. Increment thisPlot for each plot

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 Multiple plots per figure window (1)

Example:
>> x = l i n s p a c e ( 0 , 2 * p i ) ;
>> s u b p l o t ( 2 , 2 , 1 ) ;
>> p l o t ( x , s i n ( x ) ) ; axis([0 2*pi - 1 . 5 1 . 5 ] ) ; title(’sin(x)’);

>> s u b p l o t ( 2 , 2 , 2 ) ;
>> p l o t ( x , s i n ( 2 * x ) ) ; axis([0 2*pi - 1 . 5 1 . 5 ] ) ; title(’sin(2x)’);

>> s u b p l o t ( 2 , 2 , 3 ) ;
>> p l o t ( x , s i n ( 3 * x ) ) ; axis([0 2*pi - 1 . 5 1 . 5 ] ) ; title(’sin(3x)’);

>> s u b p l o t ( 2 , 2 , 4 ) ;
>> p l o t ( x , s i n ( 4 * x ) ) ; axis([0 2*pi - 1 . 5 1 . 5 ] ) ; title(’sin(4x)’);

(See next slide for the plot.)

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 Multiple plots per figure window (2)

sin(x) sin(2x)
1.5 1.5
1 1
0.5 0.5
0 0
-0.5 -0.5
-1 -1
-1.5 -1.5
0 2 4 6 0 2 4 6

sin(3x) sin(4x)
1.5 1.5
1 1
0.5 0.5
0 0
-0.5 -0.5
-1 -1
-1.5 -1.5
0 2 4 6 0 2 4 6

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 Plot Annotation

Name Operation(s) performed

axis Reset axis limits
grid Draw grid lines at the major ticks marks on the x and y axes
gtext Add text to a location determined by a mouse click
legend Create a legend to identify symbols and line types when multiple
curves are drawn on the same plot
text Add text to a specified ( x , y ) location
xlabel Label the x-axis
ylabel Label the y-axis
title Add a title above the plot

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 Plot Annotation Example (1)

>> D = load(’pdxTemp.dat’); m = D(:,1); T = D(:,2:4);

>> p l o t ( m , t ( : , 1 ) , ’ r o ’ , m , T ( : , 2 ) , ’ k + ’ , m , T ( : , 3 ) , ’ b - ’);
>> xlabel(’Month’);
>> ylabel(’Temperature ( { } ^ \ c i r c F ) ’ ) ;
>> t i t l e ( ’ M o n t h l y average temperature a t P D X ’ ) ;
>> a x i s ( [ 1 12 20 1 0 0 ] ) ;
>> legend(’High’,’Low’,’Average’,2);

Note: The pdxTemp.dat file is in the data directory of the NMM

toolbox. Make sure the toolbox is installed and is included in the
M ATLAB path.

(See next slide for the plot.)

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 Plot Annotation Example (2)

Monthly average temperature for Portland International Airport

100
High
Low
90 Average

80
Temperature (degrees F)

70

60

50

40

30

20
2 4 6 8 10 12
Month

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 Assignment
Instructions:

Complete the MATLAB Onramp course using mathworks account

opened using your institutional email ([email protected]).
Then submit both the PDF and link of your course completion certificate
in the assignment opened in teams before the due date.

Course Link:

https://matlabacademy.mathworks.com/details/matlab-onramp/gettingstarted

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