Introduction to Matlab

Sumitha Balasuriya
http//www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~sumitha/
 Matlab
• Stands for MATrix LABoratory
• Interpreted language
• Scientific programming environment
• Very good tool for the manipulation of matrices
• Great visualisation capabilities
• Loads of built-in functions
• Easy to learn and simple to use

Introduction to Matlab Sumitha Balasuriya 2

 Matlab Desktop

Workspace /
Current Directory
Command
Window

Command
History

Explore the Matlab Desktop

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 Variables
• Don’t have to declare type
• Don’t even have to initialise
• Just assign in command window
>>
>> a=12; % variable a is assigned 12

Matlab comment
prompt suppress operator
assign
command
operator
output Try the same line without the
semicolon and comments
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 Variables (continued …)
• View variable contents by simply typing the
variable name at the command prompt
>> a
a=
12
>>
>> a*2
a=
24
>>

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 Workspace
• The workspace is Matlab’s memory
• Can manipulate variables stored in the workspace
>> b=10;
>> c=a+b
c=
22
>>

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 Workspace (continued …)
• Display contents of workspace
>> whos
Name Size Bytes Class
a 1x1 8 double array
b 1x1 8 double array
c 1x1 8 double array
Grand total is 3 elements using 24 bytes
>>

• Delete variable(s) from workspace

>> clear a b; % delete a and b from workspace
>> whos
>> clear all; % delete all variables from workspace
>> whos

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 Matlab help commands
• help
>> help whos % displays documentation for the function whos
>> lookfor convert % displays functions with convert in the first help line

• Start Matlab help documentation

>> helpdesk

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 Matrices
• Don’t need to initialise type, or dimensions
>>A = [3 2 1; 5 1 0; 2 1 7]
A=
square brackets to define matrices
3 2 1
5 1 0 semicolon for next row in matrix
2 1 7
>>
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 Manipulating Matrices A=
3 2 1

• Access elements of a matrix 5

2
1
1
0
7

>>A(1,2)
ans= indices of matrix element(s)
2
• Remember Matrix(row,column)
• Naming convention Matrix variables start
with a capital letter while vectors or scalar
variables start with a simple letter
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 The : operator
• VERY important operator in Matlab
• Means ‘to’
>> 1:10
ans =
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
>> 1:2:10
Try the following
ans = >> x=0:pi/12:2*pi;
>> y=sin(x)
1 3 5 7 9
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 The : operator and matrices
A=
>>A(3,2:3) 3 2 1
ans = 5 1 0
2 1 7
1 7
>>A(:,2)
ans =
2
1
What’ll happen if you type A(:,:) ?
1

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 A=
3 2 1
Manipulating Matrices 5
2
1
1
0
7

>> A ' % transpose B=

1 3 1
>> B*A % matrix multiplication 4 9 5
>> B.*A % element by element multiplication 2 7 2

>> B/A % matrix division

Enter matrix B
>> B./A % element by element division into the Matlab
workspace
>> [B A] % Join matrices (horizontally)
>> [B; A] % Join matrices (vertically)

Create matrices A and B and try out the the matrix operators in this slide
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 Scripts
• Matlab editor
• Use scripts to execute a series of Matlab
commands

Matlab
Desktop
Press to create
new m-file in the
matlab editor

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• Scripts will manipulate and Scripts (continued)
store variables and matrices
in the Matlab Workspace
(memory).
• They can be called from the
Matlab command line by Will be slightly
typing the (case sensitive!) different in Linux
filename of the script file.
>> myscript
• Scripts can be opened in the
editor by the following
>> open myscript
Highlight a few lines of your
script by left- clicking and
dragging the mouse over the
lines. Right-click the
highlighted lines and select
Evaluate Selection.

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 Functions
• Programming in Matlab.
• Users can write functions which can be called from the command line.
• Functions can accept input variable(s)/matrice(s) and will output
variable(s)/matrice(s).
• Functions will not manipulate variable(s)/matrice(s) in the Matlab
Workspace.
• In Matlab functions closely resemble scripts and can be written in the
Matlab editor. Matlab functions have the function keyword.
• Remember that the filename of a function will be its calling function
name.
• Don’t overload any built-in functions by using the same filename for
your functions or scripts!
• Functions can be opened for editing using the open command. Many
built-in Matlab functions can also be viewed using this command.

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 Functions (continued)
>> I=iterate(5) function name input
output
I=
1 4 9 16 25

function keyword

help lines for function

for statement block

Access the comments of
your Matlab functions
>> help iterate Make sure you save changes to the
m-file before you call the function!
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 Functions (continued)
Functions can have many
>> [i j]=sort2(2,4) outputs contained in a matrix
i=
4
j=
2
if statement
>> block

Remember to use the

Matlab help command for
syntax
>> help if

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 More flow control
While statement block Switch statement block

Without ; to
print output

i=
4
i=
16
i= Method is linear
256 >>

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 Debugging
Debug menus
• Set breakpoints to stop the execution of code
>> [i j]=sort2(2,4)
K>>
K>> whos
Name Size Bytes Class
a 1x1 8 double array
b 1x1 8 double array
Grand total is 2 elements using 16 bytes
K>> a
a= local function
2 workspace
K>> return
i=

4 exit debug Click mouse on the left

j= mode of the line of code to
2 create a breakpoint

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 Visualisation - plotting data
>> figure % create new figure
>> t=0:pi/12:8*pi;
Plot style
>> y=cos(t);
>> plot(t,y,‘b.-')
Investigate the function
>> y=A*cos(w*t+phi);
for different values of phi (eg: 0, pi/4, pi/3,
pi/2), w (eg: 1, 2, 3, 4) and A (eg: 1, 0.5, 2). Use
the hold on Matlab command to display your
plots in the same figure. Remember to type A = amplitude
hold off to go back to normal plotting mode. phi = phase
Try using different plot styles (help plot) w = angular frequency = 2*pi*frequency
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Next week …
Image Processing using Matlab

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Useful operators and built-in functions
Operating
< ¦ save ! system
> rand load guide command
Continue in next line
~= zeros … get
== min '' set Graphical
string user interface
>= max {} cell

<= repmat try error handling

& axis catch

Remember to use the Matlab help command if you get stuck

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 Tutorial 1
• Login to your workstation, start Matlab and create a working directory
1) Login to Linux using your username/password
2) Open a terminal session by right clicking the mouse on the screen and selecting New Terminal
3) Type the following in the terminal session (do not type the prompt sign > )
> matlab
> mkdir work
4) Type the following in Matlab (do not type the prompt sign >> )
>> cd work
• Explore Matlab! Use the help matlab command to understand the built-in Matlab functions
• Type the code in this handout in Matlab and investigate the results.
• Write a Matlab function fibonacci.m to generate the Fibonacci series. This is generated by starting with zero and one and
adding the last two numbers of the sequence to generate the next number in the series. Fibonacci series:
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, ...
• Create an graph of the Fibonacci series using the built-in plot Matlab function. Your graph should resemble figure 1 which
contains a plot of the first 20 numbers in the sequence.
• Plot the Fibonacci series in polar coordinates using the built-in Matlab polar function. Eccentricity (rho) should be the
Fibonacci number and angle (theta) should vary with the Fibonacci number’s order in the sequence. Your plot should
resemble figure 2 which is a polar plot of the first 10 numbers of the series.
• Exit Matlab by typing quit and logout of Linux.
>> quit

Figure 1

Figure 2

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