Introduction to Matlab 1

Matlab Basics

Omed Ghareb Abdullah

Sulaimani University
College of Sciences
Physics Department

What is Matlab?
Matlab = Matrix Laboratory

y Matlab (short for MATrix LABoratory is a special 

purpose computer program optimized to perform 
engineering and scientific calculations.

y The Matlab Program implement the Matlab
programming language and provide extensive 
lib
library of prdefined
  f  d fi d functions that make technical 
f ti  th t  k  t h i l 
prograaming more efficient

y Matlab is a huge Program.

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 What is Matlab?
Matlab = Matrix Laboratory

C
Capable
bl off solving
l i any technical
t h i l problems
bl

y Examples:
Examples:
¾ Matrix computations and linear algebra
¾ Solving nonlinear equations
¾ Numerical solution of differential equations
¾ Mathematical optimization
¾ Statistics and data analysis
¾ Signal processing
¾ Modelling of dynamical systems
¾ Solving partial differential equations
¾ Simulation of engineering systems 

Introduction to MATLAB
The MATLAB Environment includes
y Graphical user interface
y MATLAB desktop and Command Window
y A command history
y An editor and debugger, and
y A Browser for viewing help, the workspace, files,
and the search path.

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 Matlab Desktop

Launch Pad
>>

History Command
Window

Matlab Desktop

Workspace

Command
Wi d
Window

Current
Directory

3
 MATLAB shortcuts
New Open files SIMULINK Help

file

The Matlab Environment
y Matlab is an interpreted language
y Commands are typed into the COMMAND Window and executed 
immediately
y Variables are allocated in memory as soon as they are first used in an 
expression
y Commands must be re‐entered to be re‐executed
y All variables created in the Command Window are in what is 
called the Base Workspace
y Variables can be reassigned new values as needed
y Variables can be selectively cleared from the workspace
y The Workspace can be saved to a data file
y File extension is .mat (ex: mydata.mat)
y File is in binary and essentially unreadable by humans
y .mat files can be reloaded back into the Matlab Workspace

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 Matlab Help
y You can’t possibly learn everything there is to know about 
MATLAB, … and you don’t need to.
y It is crucial to develop the ability to augment your knowledge in 
MATLAB toward accomplishing a given task.

Matlab Help

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 Matlab Help
y Click the tab in the navigation pane labeled Search. 
y Then type into the Search field the name ezplot.

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The Help System
S
Search for appropriate function
h f   i t  f ti
y >> lookfor keyword

Rapid help with syntax and function definition 
y >> help function

An advanced hyperlinked help system is launched by
y >> helpdesk

Complete manuals as PDF files

y http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/

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6
 Matlab Editor
Access to
commands

Color keyed
text with auto
indents

tabbed sheets
for other files
being edited

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Expressions
Like most other programming languages, MATLAB
provides mathematical expressions,
expressions but unlike most
programming languages, these expressions involve entire
matrices.
The building blocks of expressions are
y Numbers
y Variables
V i bl
y Functions
y Operators

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7
Numbers
MATLAB uses conventional decimal notation for
numbers For example:
numbers.
3, -99, 0.0001, 3.14159, 1.60210e-20, 6.02252e23, 1i, 1j,
3e5i
All numbers are stored using the long format specified by
the IEEE floating-point standard (i.e. 8 bytes). Floating-
point numbers have a finite precision of roughly 16
significant decimal digits and a finite range of roughly 10-
308 to 10+308.

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Variables
When MATLAB encounters a new variable name, it
automatically creates the variable and allocates the
appropriate amount of storage. MATLAB does not require
any type declarations or dimension statements.
Variable names consist of a letter, followed by any number
of letters, digits, or underscores. MATLAB uses only the
first 31 characters of a variable name. MATLAB is case
sensitive (i.e. A and a are not the same variable).

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8
Functions
MATLAB provides a large number of standard
elementary
l t mathematical
th ti l functions,
f ti suchh as: abs,
b sqrt,
t
exp, and sin. MATLAB handles complex numbers thus
taking the square root or logarithm of a negative
number is not an error.
For a list of the elementary functions:
help elfun
help specfun
help elmat

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Operators
Expressions use familiar arithmetic operators and 
precedence rules  
precedence rules. 
+ Addition
‐ Subtraction
* Multiplication
/ Division
\ Left division
^ Power
` Complex conjugate transpose
( ) Specify evaluation order

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 MATLAB as a Calculator
Command window

>> 39*4.4+5

The MATLAB command

ans =
176Command
176.6000
C 6000d window
i d

The result.

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MATLAB Assignment
z Variable names:
z Starts with a letter

z Up to 31 characters ( some use 19 or 21)

z May contain letters, digits and underscore_

z Case sensitive (“A” is not the same as “a”)

» A=2.3

A =
The MATLAB command
2.3000
This is the result of the
MATLAB statement

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10
Basic Syntax
y Common Built-in Math Functions
y sin(x) sine
y cos
cos(x)
(x) cosine
y tan(x) tangent
y asin
asin(x)
(x) sin inverse
y acos
acos(x)
(x) cosine inverse
y atan
atan(x)
(x) tangent inverse
y sinh
sinh(x)
(x) sin hyperbolic
y cosh
cosh(x)
(x) cosine hyperbolic
y tanh
tanh(x)
(x) tangent hyperbolic

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Basic Syntax
y Common Built-in Math Functions
bessel , gamma , erf , legendre

y exp(x) exponential
y log(x) base e logarithm
y log10
log10(x)
(x) base 10 logarithm
y sqrt
sqrt(x)
(x) square root
y abs(x) absolute value
y round(x) round towards nearest integer.
» round(2.58) = 3 » round(-2.58)= -3
y fix(x)
fi ( ) roundd towards
t d zero
» fix(2.58)= 2 » fix(-2.58)= -2
other functions:

y ceil(x)
(x) round towards (+ infinity)
» ceil(2.58) = 3 » ceil(-2.58) = -2
y floor(x)
(x) round towards (- infinity)
floor(-2.58)= -3 » floor(2.58) = 2 22

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 Useful Constants
y Inf infinity
y NaN Not and number (div by zero)
y eps machine epsilon
y ans most recent unassigned answer
y pi 3.14159….
y i and j Matlab supports imaginary 
numbers!

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MATLAB variable
y Predefined variables:
which can be used at any time:
i= sqrt(-1) Use semi‐
j= sqrt(-1) colon after 
pi= 3.1416... commands for 
“quiet” 
quiet  
y complex number: execution
y= 2*(1+4*j)
yields: y = 2.0000 + 8.0000i
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 Interactive Calculations
Matlab is interactive, no need to declare variables
y >> 2+3*4/2 /
y >> a=5e-3; b=1; a+b
Use ‘;’ at the end of command if you don’t want to see the result of that command

Most elementary functions and constants are already defined
y >> cos(pi)
y >> abs(1+i)
y >> sin(pi)

Last call gives answer 1.2246e-016 !?

Use Ç Èkeys to scroll through previously entered commands and rerun.

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Complex numbers
>> c1=1-2i
c1=
1
1.0000 – 2.0000i
>> c2=6+sin(.5)*j
c2=
6.0000 + 0.4794i
>>M=abs(c1)
>>theta=angle(c1)
>>a=real(c1)
>> b=imag(c1)

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 Syntax Errors
y All errors are given in the Command Window 
Command Window in red
y Nature of error is explained 

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Interactive Calculations
Example1:

y Enter the following lines on the

MATLAB Command Windows

>> watt = 100;

>> volt = 110; Workspace
>> i = watt/volt
i=
0.9091
Command History Command Window
y Double Click the Command
in the Command History
Window 28

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Interactive Calculations
Example 2:

y Calculate the area of a circle with a radius of

0.001 inch (π r2).
>> pi
ans =
3.1416
>>r=.001
r=
0.0010
>> area = pi*r^2
area =
3.1416e-006
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Interactive Calculations
Example 3:

y Sum of 12 numbers with continue statement

on successive lines by typing an ellipsis (…)
at the end of the first line

>> x = 1 + 2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12
x=
78

>> x = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ...
5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12
x=
78

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 Floating point numbers in Matlab
y IEEE Standard for double precision numbers
Each format contains three components:
Sign bit Exponent Fraction

s e f
1 2 12 13 64

y Round‐off: eps = 2‐52 

y Underflow: realmin = 2‐1022
y Overflow: realmax = (2‐eps) ∙21023
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Format
Control display format for output 
All computations in MATLAB are done in double precision.
Format may be used to switch between different output display formats as follows:

y >> format                          Default. Same as Short.
y >> format short                Scaled fixed point format with 5 digits.
y >> format long                 Scaled fixed point format with 15 digits.
y >> format short e             Floating point format with 5 digits.
y >> format long e              Floating point format with 15 digits.
y >> format short g             Best of fixed or floating point format with 5 digits.
y >> format long g              Best of fixed or floating point format with 15 digits.
y >> format hex                  Hexadecimal format.
 f  h                   H d i l f
y >> format +                      The symbols +, ‐ and blank are printed (Imaginary parts are ignored)
y >> format bank                Fixed format for dollars and cents.
y >> format rat                    Approximation by ratio of small integers.
y >> format compact          Suppress extra line‐feeds.
y >> format loose               Puts the extra line‐feeds back in.

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 Who  and Whos
List variables in the workspace

y >> who lists the variables in the current workspace.

y >> whos lists more information about each variable.
y >> who Var1 Var2 restricts the display to the variables specified.

The wildcard character '*' can be used to display variables that

match a pattern. For instance,

y >> who a*
finds all variables in the current workspace that start with a.

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Save & Load
Variables can be stored on file

p
saves all workspace variables to the binaryy "MAT-file"
y>> save filename

saves only variables var1 var2 ...

y>> save filename var1 var2 ...
y>> clear
y>> clc

The extension of filename is .mat

The data may be retrieved with Load.

y>> load filename

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 Matlab Files
y File types of MATLAB
y .m file
y .fig files
y .mat files
y Basic Commands in command window
y save <filename>
y load <filename>

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Clear
Clear workspace:
Remove variables and functions, freeing up system memory
y>> clear
y>> clear
l allll
Clear Command Window :
y >> clc
As an alternative to the clc function, use Clear Command
Window in the MATLAB desktop Edit menu.
Move the cursor to the upper left corner of the Command
Window
y >>home
h
Clear Command History:
y select an entry, or use Ctrl+A to select all entries. Then right-click
and select one of the delete options from the context menu.
y Another way to clear the entire history is by selecting Clear
Command History from the Edit menu.
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 Dir 
lists the files in the current working directory.
y >> dir
lists the specified files. The name argument can be a   
pathname, filename, or can include both. You can use 
absolute and relative pathnames and wildcards (*).
y >> dir filename
y >> dir s
>> dir s*
lists all the M‐files 
y >> dir *.m
y >>ls
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Path
>> path 
View or change the MATLAB directory search path  
View or change the MATLAB directory search path. 
>> pwd
Display current directory.
y >> cd
prints out the current directory.
y >> cd ..
moves to the directory above the current one.
y >> cd work
Changes the current working directory to demos

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 What
List MATLAB specific files in current directory

y >> what
lists the m, mat, mex, mdl, and p-files and the class directories
that reside in the current working directory.
y >> what dirname
lists more information about each variable lists the files in
directory dirname on the MATLAB search path. It is not
necessary to enter the full pathname of the directory. The last
component, or last two components, is sufficient.

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Which
Locate functions and files

y>> which filename

displays the full pathname for the corresponding file.

y>> which Var

y>> which Fun
Var Workspace variable or Fun built-in function, then which
displays a message identifyingVar as a variable or built
built-in
in
function.

y >> date
y >> clock
Year, Month, Day, Hour, Minute, Seconds
y >> datestr(now)
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