Note about functions in files

• Whenever possible, write your functions in their own files

➢ e.g. myfun should be in a file by itself, and the file should

be called myfun.m*

➢ If you include more than one function per file, only the
first function is accessible in other scripts

➢ More info here:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/c
reate-functions-in-files.html

* If filename and function name differs, MATLAB recognizes your

function by its filename**, not the function name

** yes, this is very confusing :(

2
 Outline

(1) Probability and Statistics

(2) Data Structures
(3) Images
(4) File I/O

3
 Statistics

• Whenever analyzing data, you have to compute statistics

» scores = 100*rand(1,100); % random data

• Built-in functions
➢ mean, median, mode

• To group data into a histogram

» hist(scores,5:10:95);
➢ makes a histogram with bins centered at 5, 15, 25…95
» hist(scores,20);
➢ makes a histogram with 20 bins
» N=histc(scores,0:10:100);
➢ returns the number of occurrences between the specified
bin edges 0 to <10, 10 to <20…90 to <100. you can plot
these manually:
» bar(0:10:100,N,'r')
4
 Random Numbers

• Many probabilistic processes rely on random numbers

• MATLAB contains the common distributions built in

» rand
➢ draws from the uniform distribution from 0 to 1
» randn
➢ draws from the standard normal distribution (Gaussian)
» random
➢ can give random numbers from many more distributions
➢ see help random

• You can also seed the random number generators

» rand('state',0); rand(1); rand(1);
rand('state',0); rand(1); % same random number
5
 Changing Mean and Variance

• We can alter the given distributions

» y=rand(1,100)*10+5;
➢ gives 100 uniformly distributed numbers between 5 and 15
» y=floor(rand(1,100)*10+6);
➢ gives 100 uniformly distributed integers between 6 and 15.
floor or ceil is better to use here than round
➢ you can also use randi([6,15],1,100)

» y=randn(1,1000)
» y2=y*5+8
➢ increases std to 5 and makes the mean 8

6
 Exercise: Probability

• We will simulate Brownian motion in 1 dimension. Call the script

‘brwn’
• Make a 10,001 element vector of zeros
• Write a loop to keep track of the particle’s position at each time
• Assume middle of the vector is position 0. To get the new
position, pick a random number, and if it’s <0.5, go left; if it’s
>0.5, go right. Keep count of how many times each position is
visited.
• Plot a 50 bin histogram of the positions.

7
 Outline

(1) Probability and Statistics

(2) Data Structures
(3) Images
(4) File I/O

8
 Advanced Data Structures

• We have used 2D matrices

➢ Can have n-dimensions (e.g., RGB images)
➢ Every element must be the same type (ex. integers,
doubles, characters…)
➢ Matrices are space-efficient and convenient for calculation
➢ Large matrices with many zeros can be made sparse
– More on this later this lecture

• Sometimes, more complex data structures are more

appropriate
➢ Cell array: it's like an array, but elements don't have to be
the same type
➢ Structs: can bundle variable names and values into one
structure
– Like object oriented programming in MATLAB

9
 Cells: organization

• A cell is just like a matrix, but each field can contain

anything (even other matrices):

3x3 Matrix 3x3 Cell Array

2
J o h n
1.2 -3 5.5 4
32
-2.4 15 -10
M a r y 27 1
7.8 -1.1 4 18

L e o []

• One cell can contain people's names, ages, and the ages of
their children
• To do the same with matrices, you would need 3 variables
and padding 10
 Cells: initialization

• To initialize a cell, specify the size

» a=cell(3,10);
➢ a will be a cell with 3 rows and 10 columns

• or do it manually, with curly braces {}

» c={'hello world',[1 5 6 2],rand(3,2)};
➢ c is a cell with 1 row and 3 columns

• Each element of a cell can be anything

• To access a cell element, use curly braces {}

» a{1,1}=[1 3 4 -10];
» a{2,1}='hello world 2';
» a{1,2}=c{3};

11
 Exercise: Cells

• Write a script called sentGen

• Make a 2x3 cell, and put three names into the first row,
and adjectives into the second row
• Pick two random integers (values 1 to 3)
• Display a sentence of the form '[name] is [adjective].'
• Run the script a few times

12
 Structs

• Structs allow you to name and bundle relevant variables

➢ Like C-structs, which are containers with fields

• To initialize an empty struct:

» s=struct;
➢ size(s) will be 1x1
➢ initialization is optional but is recommended when using large
structs

• To add fields
» s.name = ‘Leo';
» s.age = 18;
» s.childAge = [];
➢ Fields can be anything: matrix, cell, even struct
➢ Useful for keeping variables together

• For more information, see help13struct

 Struct Arrays

• To initialize a struct array, give field, values pairs

» ppl=struct('name',{'John','Mary','Leo'},...
'age',{32,27,18},'childAge',{[2;4],1,[]});
➢ size(ppl)=1x3
➢ every cell must have the same size
» person=ppl(2);
➢ person is now a struct with fields name, age, children
➢ the values of the fields are the second index into each cell
» ppl(3)=s;
➢ adds struct (fields must match)
» person.name ppl ppl(1) ppl(2) ppl(3)
➢ returns 'Mary'
» ppl(1).age
➢ returns 32 name: 'John' 'Mary' 'Leo'
age: 32 27 18
childAge: [2;4] 1 []
 Structs: Access

• To access 1x1 struct fields, give name of the field

» stu=s.name;
» a=s.age;
➢ 1x1 structs are useful when passing many variables to a
function. Put them all in a struct, and pass the struct

• To access nx1 struct arrays, use indices

» person=ppl(2);
➢ person is a struct with name, age, and child age
» personName=ppl(2).name;
➢ personName is 'Mary'
» a=[ppl.age];
➢ a is a 1x3 vector of the ages; this may not always work,
the vectors must be able to be concatenated

15
 Exercise: Structs

• Modify the script sentGen

• Create a struct array with a field “name” and a field “adj”
containing the values from the previous cell array
• Do not create it from scratch! Use the previously defined
cell array!
• Modify the display command to use the struct array
• Run the script a few times

16
 Outline

(1) Probability and Statistics

(2) Data Structures
(3) Images
(4) File I/O

17
 Handles

• Manipulate graphics objects using ‘handles’

» L=plot(1:10,rand(1,10));
➢ gets the handle for the plotted line
» A=gca;
➢ gets the handle for the current axis
» F=gcf;
➢ gets the handle for the current figure
• To see the current property values, use get
» get(L);
» yVals=get(L,'YData');
• To change the properties, use set
» set(A,'FontName','Arial','XScale','log');
» set(L,'LineWidth',1.5,'Marker','*');
• Everything you see in a figure is completely customizable
through handles 18
 Reading/Writing Images

• Images can be imported as a matrix of pixel values

» im=imread('myPic.jpg');
» imshow(im);

• Matlab supports almost all image formats

➢ jpeg, tiff, gif, bmp, png, …
➢ see help imread for details (e.g., pixel format and types)

• To write an image, give:

➢ rgb matrix (0 to 1 doubles, or 0 to 255 uint8)
» imwrite(rand(300,300,3),'t1.jpg');
➢ indices and colormap
» imwrite(ceil(rand(200)*256),jet(256),'t2.jpg');
➢ see help imwrite for more options
19
 MATLAB's built-in images
AT3_1m4_01.tif AT3_1m4_02.tif
AT3_1m4_03.tif AT3_1m4_04.tif Load these like you'd load
AT3_1m4_05.tif AT3_1m4_06.tif
AT3_1m4_07.tif AT3_1m4_08.tif anything else in your
AT3_1m4_09.tif AT3_1m4_10.tif
autumn.tif bag.png current directory:
blobs.png board.tif
cameraman.tif canoe.tif
cell.tif circbw.tif
circles.png
coins.png
circuit.tif
concordaerial.png
>> load(cameraman.tif');
concordorthophoto.png eight.tif
fabric.png football.jpg
forest.tif gantrycrane.png
glass.png greens.jpg
hestain.png kids.tif
liftingbody.png logo.tif
m83.tif mandi.tif
moon.tif mri.tif
office_1.jpg office_2.jpg
office_3.jpg office_4.jpg
office_5.jpg office_6.jpg
onion.png paper1.tif
pears.png peppers.png
pillsetc.png pout.tif
rice.png saturn.png
shadow.tif snowflakes.png
spine.tif tape.png
testpat1.png text.png
tire.tif tissue.png
trees.tif westconcordaerial.png
westconcordorthophoto.png
20
 Outline

(1) Probability and Statistics

(2) Data Structures
(3) Images
(4) File I/O

21
 Importing Data

• Matlab is a great environment for processing data. If you

have a text file with some data:

• To import data from files on your hard drive, use

importdata
» a=importdata('textFile.txt');
➢ a is a struct with data, textdata, and colheaders fields

» x=a.data;
» names=a.colheaders; 22
 Importing Data

• With importdata, you can also specify delimiters. For

example, for comma separated values, use:
» a=importdata('filename', ',');
➢ The second argument tells matlab that the tokens of
interest are separated by commas

• importdata is very robust, but sometimes it can have

trouble. To read files with more control, use fscanf (similar
to C/Java), textscan. See help for information on how to
use these functions

23
 Writing Excel Files

• Matlab contains specific functions for reading and writing

Microsoft Excel files

• To write a matrix to an Excel file, use xlswrite

» xlswrite('randomNumbers',rand(10));
» xlswrite('randomNumbers',rand(10),...
'Sheet1','C11:L20');
➢ Sheet name and range optional

• You can also write a cell array if you have mixed data:
» C={'hello','goodbye';10,-2;-3,4};
» xlswrite('randomNumbers',C,'mixedData');

• See help xlswrite for more usage options

24
 Reading Excel Files

• Reading excel files is equally easy

• To read from an Excel file, use xlsread

» [num,txt,raw]=xlsread('randomNumbers.xls');
➢ Reads the first sheet
➢ num contains numbers, txt contains strings,
raw is the entire cell array containing everything
» [num,txt,raw]=xlsread('randomNumbers.xls',...
'mixedData');
➢ Reads the mixedData sheet
» [num,txt,raw]=xlsread('randomNumbers.xls',-1);
➢ Opens the file in an Excel window and lets you click on the
data you want!

• See help xlsread for even more fancy options

25
 Reading ANY File

• You can read any file as binary data

• To read from a file, use fopen

» fid = fopen(‘fileName’, ‘r’);
➢ Returns a handle to a file
» data = fread(fid, 10);
➢ Reads the next 10 bytes from the file and stores them in
data
» fseek(fid, 5, 0);
➢ Moves forward 5 bytes from the current position

• See help fopen/fread/fwrite/ftell/fseek for even more

fancy options

26
 Lecture 5

• Not mandatory – but highly recommended!

• More cool stuff Matlab has to offer

• Some things we can cover:

• Animations
• Build a GUI for your projects!
• Use cool toolboxes
• Interact with hardware (scopes, analyzers, Arduino,
Raspberry PI, Lego Mindstorm…)
• Use Simulink to graphically build complex systems and
simulate
• Do image processing
• Plus… No Homework assignment!
27
 Don’t Forget….

• Comment your code!

• help and Google are your best friends –

use them!

• Vectorize whenever possible

• Matlab is powerful but it is not a substitute

for your own insights

28
 End of Lecture 4

(1) Probability and Statistics

(2) Data Structures
(3) Images
(4) File I/O

THE END (ALMOST)

29