1

Introduction to MATLAB

1. Warm-up
MATLAB is a high-level programming language that has been used extensively to solve
complex engineering problems. The language itself bears some similarities with ANSI C and
FORTRAN.
MATLAB works with three types of windows on your computer screen. These are the
Command window, the Fi gure window and the Ed i tor window. The Figure window only
pops up whenever you plot something. The Ed itor window is used for writing and editing
MATLAB programs (called M-files) and can be invoked in Windows from the pull-down
menu after selecting File New
| M-f
| i le . In UNIX, the Ed i tor window pops up whenyou
type in the command window: edi t f i lename (‘filename’ is the name of the file you want to
create).
The command window is the main window in which you communicate with the MATLAB
interpreter. The MATLAB interpreter displays a command >> indicating that it is ready
to accept commands from you.

• View the MATLAB introduction by typing

>> intro
at the MATLAB prompt. This short introduction will demonstrate some basic MATLAB
commands.

• Explore MATLAB’s help capability by trying the following:

>> he lp
>> he lp plot
>> he lp ops
>> he lp ari th

• Type demo and explore some of the demos of MATLAB commands.

• You can use the command window as a calculator, or you can use it to call other
MATLAB programs (M-files).
√
Say you want to evaluate the expression a3 + bd− 4c , where a=1.2, b=2.3, c=4.5 and
d=4. Then in the command window, type:
>> a = 1 . 2 ;
>> b=2 . 3 ;
>> c=4 . 5 ;
>> d=4 ;
>> a^3+sqr t (b*d) -4*c
 2

ans =
-13 . 2388
Note the semicolon after each variable assignment. If you omit the semicolon, then
MATLAB echoes back on the screen the variable value.

2. Arithmetic Operations
There are four different arithmetic operators:
+ addition
− subtraction
* multiplication
/ division (for matrices it also means inversion)
There are also three other operators that operate on an element by element basis:
.* multiplication of two vectors, element by element
./ division of two vectors, element-wise
. ^ raise all the elements of a vector to a power.

Suppose that we have the vectors x = [x1, x2, ..., xn] and y = [y1, y2, ..., yn]. Then
x. ∗ y = [x1y1, x2y2, ..., xnyn]
x./y = [ x1 , x2 , ..., xn ]
x.ˆp y1 y2
p p
yn
p
= [x1, x2, ..., xn]

The arithmetic operators + and — can be used to add or subtract matrices, scalars or vectors.
By vectors we mean one-dimensional arrays and by matrices we mean multi-dimensional
arrays. This terminology of vectors and matrices comes from Linear Algebra.
E xample:
>> X=[ 1 ,3 , 4 ]
>> Y=[ 4 ,5 , 6 ]
>> X+Y
ans=
5 8 10

For the vectors X and Y the operator + adds the elements of the vectors, one by one, assuming
that the two vectors have the same dimension. In the above example, both vectors had the
dimension 1 × 3, i.e., one row with three columns. An error will occur if you try to add a
1 × 3 vector to a 3 × 1 vector. The same applies for matrices.
P
To compute the dot product of two vectors (i.e. xiyi ), you can use the multiplica-
i
tion operator * . For the above example, it is:
>> X*Y’
ans =
43
Note the single quote after Y. The single quote denotes the transpose of a matrix or a vector.
 3

To compute an element by element multiplication of two vectors (or two arrays), you can
use the .* operator:
>> X .* Y
ans =
4 15 24
That is, X.*Y means [1×4, 3 ×5, 4 ×6] = [4 15 24]. The ‘.*’ operator is used very often
(and is highly recommended) because it is executed much faster compared to the code that
uses for loops.

3. Complex numbers
MATLAB also supports complex numbers. The imaginary number is denoted with the
symbol i or j , assuming that you did not use these symbols anywhere in your program (that
is very important!). Try the following:
>> z=3 + 4 i % note that you do not need the ‘*’ after 4
>> con j (z) % computes the conjugate of z
>> ang le( z) % computes the phase of z
>> rea l (z) % computes the real part of z
>> imag (z) % computes the imaginary part of z
>> abs ( z) % computes the magnitude of z

You can also define the imaginary number with any other variables you like. Try the follow-
ing:
>> img=sqr t (-1 )
>> z=3+4* i mg
>> exp ( pi* img)

4. Array indexing
In MATLAB, all arrays (vectors) are indexed starting with 1, i.e., y(1) is the first element of
the array y. Note that the arrays are indexed using parenthesis (.) and not square brackets
[.] as in C/C++. To create an array having as elements the integers 1 through 6, just enter:
>> x=[ 1 ,2 , 3 ,4 , 5 , 6 ]
Alternatively, you can use the : notation,
>> x=1 : 6
The : notation above creates a vector starting from 1 to 6, in steps of 1. If you want to
create a vector from 1 to 6 in steps of say 2, then type:
>> x=1 : 2 : 6
Ans =
1 3 5
Try the following code:
>> i i =2 :4 : 17
>> j j =20 : -2 :0
 4

>> i i =2 : ( 1/10 ):4

Extracting or inserting numbers in a vector can be done very easily. To concatenate an array,
you can use the [ ] operator, as shown in the example below:
>> x=[ 1 :3 4 6 100 : 110 ]
To access a subset of the array, try the following:
>> x( 3 : 7 )
>> length(x) % gives the size of the array or vector
>> x( 2 : 2 : l ength ( x))

5. Allocating memory
You can allocate memory for one-dimensional arrays (vectors) using the zeros command.
The following command allocates memory for a 100-dimensional array:
>> Y=zeros ( 100 ,1 );
>> Y( 30 )
ans =
0
Similarly, you can allocate memory for two-dimensional arrays (matrices). The command
>> Y=zeros ( 4 , 5 )
defines a 4 by 5 matrix. Similar to the zeros command, you can use the command ones to
define a vector containing all ones,
>> Y=ones ( 1 ,5 )
ans=
1 1 1 1 1

6. Special characters and functions

Some common special characters used in MATLAB are given below:
 5

Symbol Meaning
pi π(3.14...)
sqrt indicates square root e.g., sqrt(4)=2
ˆ indicates power(e.g., 3ˆ2=9)
abs Absolute value | .| e.g., abs(-3)=3
NaN Not-a-number, obtained when comparing mathematically undefined op-
ererations, such as 0/0
Inf Represents +∞
; Indicates the end of a row in a matrix. It is also used to suppress
printing on the screen (echo off)
% Denotes a comment. Anything to the right of % is ignored by the
MATLAB interpreter and is considered as comments
’ Denotes transpose of a vector or matrix. It’s also used to define strings,
e.g.,str1=’DSP’;

Some special functions are given below:

length ( x) - gives the dimension of the array x
f i nd - Finds indices of nonzero elements.

E xamples :
>> x=1 : 10 ;
>> length ( x)
ans =
10

The function f ind returns the indices of the vector X that are non-zero. For example, I
= f ind ( X >100 ) , finds all the indices of X when X is greater than 100. So for the above
example:
>> f i nd (x > 4 )
ans =
5 6 7 8 9 10

7. Control flow
MATLAB has the following flow control constructs:

• if statements

• switch statements

• for loops

• while loops

• break statements
 6

The if, for, switch and while statements need to terminate with an end statement.
Examples:
I F:
x=-3 ;
i f x>0
str=’pos i t ive’;
el se if x <0
str=’negat ive’;
el se if x= = 0
str=’zero ’;
el se
str=’error ’;
end
What is the value of ’str’ after execution of the above code?
W HIL E:
x=-10 ;
while x <0
x=x+1 ;
end
What is the value of x after execution of the above loop?
FOR loop:
X=0 ;
for i=1 : 10
X=X+1 ;
end
The above code computes the sum of all numbers from 1 to 10.

BRE AK:
The break statement lets you exit early from a for or a while loop:
x=-10 ;
while x <0
x=x+2 ;
if x = = -2
break ;
end
end
MATLAB supports the following relational and logical operators:
Relational Operators
 7

Symbol M eaning
<= Less than equal
< Less than
>= Greater than equal
> Greater than
== Equal
˜= Not equal

Logical Operators
Symbol M eaning
& AND
| OR
˜ NOT

8. Plotting
You can plot arrays using MATLAB’s function plot . The function plot (.) is used to
generate line plots. The function stem ( .) is used to generate “picket-fence” type of plots.
E xample:
>> x=1 : 20 ;
>> plot (x) % see Figure 1
>> stem (x) % see Figure 2

20

18

16

14

12

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Figure 1: Plot obtained using the plot command.

Example of a plot generated using the plot command is shown in Figure 1, and example of
a plot generated using the stem function is shown in Figure 2. More generally, plot( X, Y)
plots vector Y versus vector X. Various line types, plot symbols and colors may be obtained
 8

20

18

16

14

12

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Figure 2: Plot obtained using the stem function.

using plot( X, Y, S) where S is a character string indicating the color of the line, and the
type of line (e.g., dashed, solid, dotted, etc.). Examples for the string S include:

r red + plus −− dashed

g green * star
b blue s square

You can insert x-labels, y-labels and title to the plots, using the functions xl abe l (.) ,
ylabe l(.) and t i t le(.) respectively. To plot two or more graphs on the same figure,
use the command subp lot. For instance, to show the above two plots in the same figure,type:
>> subp lot ( 2 , 1 ,1 ), plot( x)
>> subp lot ( 2 , 1 ,2 ), stem ( x)
The (m,n,p) argument in the subplot command indicates that the figure will be split in
m rows and n columns. The ‘p’ argument takes the values 1, 2, . . . , m × n. In the example
above, m = 2,n = 1,and, p = 1 for the top figure and p = 2 for the bottom figure.

To get more help on plotting, type: help plot or he lp subp lo t.

9. P rogramming in M ATLA B ( M- files)

MATLAB programming is done using M-files, i.e., files that have the extension .m. These
files are created using a text editor. To open the text editor, go to the File pull-down menu,
choose New , then M-f i le . After you type in the program, save it, and then call it from the
command window to execute it.
 9

20

15

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

20

15

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Figure 3: Output of the subp lot( 2 , 1 , p) command.

Say for instance that you want to write a program to compute the average (mean) of
a vector x. The program should take as input the vector x and return the average of the
vector.

Steps:
1. You need to create a new file, called “average.m”. If you are in Windows, open the
text editor by going to the File pull-down menu, choose New, then M-f i le. If you are
in UNIX, then type in the command window: ed i t average . m. Type the following
in the empty file

funct i on y=average ( x)
L=l ength (x);
sum=0 ;
for i=1 : L
sum=sum+x ( i ) ;
end
y=sum/L ; % the average of x

Remarks:
y — is the output of the function “average”
x — is the input array to the function “average”
 10

average — is the name of the function. It’s best if it has the same
name as the filename. MATLAB files always need to have the extension .m

2. From the Editor pull-down menu, go to File | Save, and enter: average . m for the
filename.

3. Go to the Command window to execute the program by typing:

>> x=1 : 100;

>> y=average ( x)
ans =
50 . 5000

Note that the function average takes as input the array x and returns one number, the
average of the array. In general, you can pass more than one input argument and can have
the function return multiple values. You can declare the function average, for instance, to
return 3 variables while taking 4 variables as input with the following statement:
funct i on [ y1 , y2 , y3 ] =average ( x1 , x2 , x3 ,x4 )
In the command window it has to be invoked as:
>> [ y1 , y2 , y3 ] =average ( x1 , x2 , x3 ,x4 )

10. MATLA B sound

If your PC has a sound card, then you can use the function soundsc to play back speech or
audio files through the PC’s speakers. The usage of this function is given below:

soundsc ( Y, FS) sends the signal in vector Y (with sample frequency

FS) out to the speaker on platforms that support sound. Stereo sounds are
played, on platforms that support it, when Y is an N-by-2 matrix.

Try the following code, and listen to a 400-Hz tone:

>> t=0 : 1/8192 : 1 ;
>> x=cos ( 2*pi*400*t );
>> soundsc ( x, 8192 );
Now, try listening to noise:
>> noi se=randn (8192 , 1 ); % generate 8192 samples of noise
>> soundsc ( noise, 8192 );
The function randn generates Gaussian noise.
 11

11. Loading and saving data

You can load or save data using the commands l oad and save. To save the variable x of
the above code in the file data.mat , type:
>> save data . mat x
Note that MATLAB’s data files have the extension . mat. To retrieve the data that was
saved in the vector x, type:
>> load data . mat
The vector x is loaded in memory. To see the contents of memory use the command
whos:
>> whos

Name Size Bytes Cl ass

x 1x8193 65544 doub le array
Grand total is 8193 el ements usi ng 65544 bytes

The command whos gives a list of all the variables currently in memory, along with their
dimension. In our case, x contained 8193 samples.

To clear up memory after loading a file, you may type clear all when done . That is
very important, because if you do not clear all the variables in memory, you may run into
problems with other programs that you will write that use the same variables.

12. Problems
1. Write a MATLAB program that will add all the numbers corresponding to the even
indices of an array. For instance, if the array x was x= [1 , 3 , 5 , 10 ] , then it should
return 13 (= 3 + 10). Use that program to find the sum of all even integers from 1 to
1000. Write your program so that it is flexible. That is, you should be able to invoke
your program from the command window as follows:
>> y=addeven (x)
where x is the input vector, and y is the sum of all the numbers corresponding to the
even indices of x.
2. Can you explain what the following program does:
L=l ength ( x);
for i=1 : L

i f x( i) < 0
x( i ) =-1 ;
end
end
Can you rewrite this program without using for loops?
 12

3. Write a program to compute the variance of an array x. The variance σ is defined to

be:

1 X
N
σ= (x − x)2 (1)
N i=1 i

where x is the average of the array x. For x, use all the integers from 1 to 1000.
4. Write a program that implements the following hard-limiting function:
½
0.2 x ≥ 0.2
f (x) = (2)
−0.2 x ≤ 0.2

For x, use 1000 random numbers generated using the function rand.
13