Using Script Files and Managing Data

MATLAB An Introduction With Applications, 6th Edition Slide deck by

Dr. Amos Gilat Dr. Greg Reese
The Ohio State University Miami University
4.0

In this chapter will study

• How to input data into a script file
• How MATLAB stores data
• Ways to display and save data
• How to exchange data between
MATLAB and other programs

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4.1 THE MATLAB WORKSPACE AND THE WORKSPACE WINDOW

MATLAB workspace made up of

variables that you define and store
during a MATLAB session. It
includes variables
• Defined in the Command Window
• Defined in script files
A script file can access all variables
that you defined in the Command
Window
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4.1 THE MATLAB WORKSPACE AND THE WORKSPACE WINDOW

whos command is like who

command (Chapter 1) but with more
information

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4.1 THE MATLAB WORKSPACE AND THE WORKSPACE WINDOW

Can also view workspace variables in

the Workspace Window
 To open Workspace Window, click on
Layout icon, then Workspace

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4.1 THE MATLAB WORKSPACE AND THE WORKSPACE WINDOW

To edit (change) a variable in the

Workspace Window
1. Double-click on variable to get the
Variable Editor Window
2. In that window can modify numbers

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4.1 THE MATLAB WORKSPACE AND THE WORKSPACE WINDOW

In Variable Editor Window

• To change a character, place cursor to
right of character and press BACKSPACE
or to left and press DELETE
• To delete a number, select it by dragging
or double-clicking, then press DELETE
or BACKSPACE

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4.1 THE MATLAB WORKSPACE AND THE WORKSPACE WINDOW

To delete a variable from the Workspace

Window
• Select variable by dragging or double-
clicking, then
 Press DELETE or BACKSPACE
or
 Right click and select Delete
• Can also delete a variable from Command
Window with command
>> clear variable_name
e.g.,
>> clear g
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4.2 INPUT TO A SCRIPT FILE

When MATLAB executes (runs) a

script file, any variables used in file
must already have values assigned to
them, i.e., the variables must already
be in the workspace

Can assign a value to a variable in

three ways

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4.2 INPUT TO A SCRIPT FILE

1. Assign value in script file

• Assignment statement is part of script
• To use different value, must edit file, save
file, and run file again

Note – when variable value (a number)

is part of script, value is said to be
hard-coded

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4.2 INPUT TO A SCRIPT FILE

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4.2 INPUT TO A SCRIPT FILE

2. Assign value in Command Window

• Define variable and assign its value in
Command Window
 From before, know that script file will recognize
variable
• To use different value, assign new value in
Command Window and run file again
 Don't need to resave file

Instead of retyping entire command,

use up-arrow to recall command and
TIP then edit it
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4.2 INPUT TO A SCRIPT FILE

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4.2 INPUT TO A SCRIPT FILE

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4.2 INPUT TO A SCRIPT FILE

3. Assign by prompt in script file

• Script file prompts (asks) user to
enter a value, then script assigns
that value to a variable

Use MATLAB input command to

ask for and get value from user

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4.2 INPUT TO A SCRIPT FILE

variable_name=input('prompt')
prompt is text that input command
displays in Command Window
• You must put text between single quotes

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4.2 INPUT TO A SCRIPT FILE

variable_name=input('prompt')
When script executes input command
1. Displays prompt text in Command
Window
2. Puts cursor immediately to right of
prompt
3. User types value and presses ENTER
4. Script assigns user's value to variable
and displays value unless input
command had semicolon at end
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4.2 INPUT TO A SCRIPT FILE

Script output (in Command Window)

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4.2 INPUT TO A SCRIPT FILE

It's helpful to put a space, or a colon

and a space, at the end of the prompt
TIP so that the user's entry is separated
from the prompt.
Example script file:
age = input('Age in 2012');

age = input('Age in 2012 ');

age = input('Age in 2012: ');

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4.2 INPUT TO A SCRIPT FILE

Output of script shown with value of

"30" that user entered
TIP Age in 201230 bad

Age in 2012 30 better

Age in 2012: 30 good

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4.2 INPUT TO A SCRIPT FILE

Can also prompt for and assign a text

string to a variable.
Method 1
Use input as before but user must type
in beginning and ending quote marks
>> name = input( 'Your name: ' )
Your name: 'Joe'
name = User must type quotes

Joe
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4.2 INPUT TO A SCRIPT FILE

Method 2
Pass 's' as second argument to input.
User should not enter quotes
variable_name=input('prompt', 's')
>> name=input('Your name: ', 's')
Your name: Joe User enters without quotes
name =
Joe

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4.3 OUTPUT COMMANDS

When omit semicolon at end of

statement, MATLAB displays result
on screen. You have no control over
appearance of result, e.g., how many
lines, what precision in numbers.
Can use MATLAB command disp
for some control of appearance and
fprintf for full control

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4.3.1 The disp Command

disp (display) command displays

variable values or text on screen
• Displays each time on new line
• Doesn't print variable name
disp(variable_name) or
disp('text string')

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4.3.1 The disp Command

Can display tables with headers using

disp
• Clumsy because no control of
column width – must adjust
headers by inserting blanks
• Better to use fprintf

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

fprintf
• Means file print formatted
 formatted text is text that can be read by people
 unformatted text looks random to people but
computers can read it
• Can write to screen or to a file
• Can mix numbers and text in output
• Have full control of output display
• Complicated to use

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

Using the fprintf command to display text:

Display text with

fprintf('Text to display')
Example
>> fprintf( 'Howdy neighbor' )
Howdy neighbor>> Yikes!

Problem – Command Window

displays prompt (>>) at end of text,
not at start of next line!
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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

To make the next thing that

MATLAB writes (after a use of
TIP fprintf) appear on the start of a
new line, put the two characters "\n"
at the end of the fprintf text
>> fprintf( 'Howdy neighbor\n' )
Howdy neighbor
>>

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

Can also use \n in middle of text to

make MATLAB display remainder of
text on next line
>> fprintf('A man\nA
plan\nPanama\n')
A man
A plan
A canal
Panama
>>

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

\n is an escape character, a special

combination of two characters that
makes fprintf do something
instead of print the two characters
\n – makes following text come out
at start of next line
\t – horizontal tab
There are a few more

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

fprintf( format, n1, n2, n3 )

Argument
Conversion specifier
>> fprintf( 'Joe weighs %6.2f kilos', n1 )

Format string

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

>> fprintf( 'Joe weighs %6.2f kilos', n1 )

Format string
• May contain text and/or conversion
specifiers
• Must be enclosed in SINGLE quotes,
not double quotes, aka quotation
marks (" ")

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

>> fprintf( 'Joe is %d weighs %f kilos', age, weight )

Arguments
• Number of arguments and conversion
specifiers must be the same
• Leftmost conversion specifier formats
leftmost argument, 2nd to left specifier
formats 2nd to left argument, etc.

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

Conversion specifier
>> fprintf( 'Joe weighs %f kilos', n1 )

Common conversion specifiers

 %f fixed point (decimal always
between 1's and 0.1's place,
e.g., 3.14, 56.8
 %e scientific notation, e.g, 2.99e+008
 %d integers (no decimal point shown)
 %s string of characters

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

Conversion specifier
>> fprintf( 'Joe weighs %6.2f kilos', n1 )

To control display in fixed or scientific,

use %w.pf or %w.pe
• w = width: the minimum number of
characters to be displayed
• p = “precision”: the number of digits to the
right of the decimal point
If you omit "w", MATLAB will
display correct precision and just
TIP the right length 35
4.3.2 The fprintf Command

>> e = exp( 1 );
>> fprintf( 'e is about %4.1f\n', e )
e is about 2.7
>> fprintf( 'e is about %10.8f\n', e )
e is about 2.71828183
>> fprintf( 'e is about %10.8e', e )
e is about 2.71828183e+000
>> fprintf( 'e is about %10.2e', e )
e is about 2.72e+000
>> fprintf( 'e is about %f\n', e )
e is about 2.718282

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

Use escape characters to display

characters used in conversion specifiers
• To display a percent sign, use %% in
the text
• To display a single quote, use ' ' in
the text (two sequential single quotes)
• To display a backslash, use \\ in the
text (two sequential backslashes)

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

Make the following strings

• Mom's apple 3.14
• Mom's apple 3.1415926
• Mom's apple 3.1e+000
>> fprintf( 'Mom''s apple %.2f\n', pi )
Mom's apple 3.14
>> fprintf( 'Mom''s apple %.7f\n', pi )
Mom's apple 3.1415927
>> fprintf( 'Mom''s apple %.1e\n', pi )
Mom's apple 3.1e+000

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

Format strings are often long. Can

break a string by
1. Put an open square bracket ( [ ) in front of first
single quote
2. Put a second single quote where you want to stop
the line
3. Follow that quote with an ellipsis (three periods)
4. Press ENTER, which moves cursor to next line
5. Type in remaining text in single quotes
6. Put a close square bracket ( ] )
7. Put in the rest of the fprintf command

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

Example
>> weight = 178.3;
>> age = 17;
>> fprintf( ['Tim weighs %.1f lbs'...
' and is %d years old'], weight, age )

Tim weighs 178.3 lbs and is 17 years old

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

fprintf is vectorized, i.e., when

vector or matrix in arguments,
command repeats until all elements
displayed
• Uses matrix data column by column

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

Using the fprintf command to save output to a file:

Takes three steps to write to a file

Step a: – open file
fid=fopen('file_name','permission')
fid – file identifier, lets fprintf know
what file to write its output in
permission – tells how file will be
used, e.g., for reading, writing, both, etc.

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

Some common permissions

• r - open file for reading
• w - open file for writing. If file exists, content
deleted. If file doesn't exist, new file created
• a - same as w except if file exists the written
data is appended to the end of the file
• If no permission code specified, fopen uses r
See Help on fopen for all permission
codes

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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

Step b:
Write to file with fprintf. Use it
exactly as before but insert fid
before the format string, i.e.,

fprintf(fid,'format
string',variables)

The passed fid is how fprintf

knows to write to the file instead of
display on the screen 45
4.3.2 The fprintf Command

Step c:
When you're done writing to the file,
close it with the command
fclose(fid)
• Once you close it, you can't use that
fid anymore until you get a new
one by calling fopen
Make sure to close every file you
open. Too many open files
creates problems for MATLAB
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4.3.2 The fprintf Command

Miscellaneous
• If the file name you give to fopen has no
path, MATLAB writes it to the current
directory, also called the working directory
• You can have multiple files open
simultaneously and use fprintf to write to
all of them just by passing it different fids
• You can read the files you make with
fprintf in any text editor, e.g., MATLAB's
Editor window or Notepad
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4.4 THE SAVE AND LOAD COMMANDS

Use save command to save

workspace or data

Use load command to retrieve

stored workspace or data

Can use both to exchange data with

non-MATLAB programs

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4.4 THE SAVE AND LOAD COMMANDS

Use save command to save some or

all workspace variables to hard drive
Two forms
save file_name
save('file_name')
Either one saves all workspace
variables, including their name, type,
size, value

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4.4 THE SAVE AND LOAD COMMANDS

To only save specific variables, list variables

after file name. For example, to save two
variables named var1 and var2

save file_name var1 var2

save('file_name','var1','var2')

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4.4.1 The save Command

All forms store variables in file called

"file_name.mat"
• Called "mat" file
• Unformatted (binary) file
 Only MATLAB can read mat file, not other
programs
 Can't read file in text editor, or MATLAB
Editor Window

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4.4.1 The save Command

To save as formatted text (also called ASCII text)

save file_name –ascii
IMPORTANT – only saves values of variables, no
other info, even their names!
• Can also just save certain variables, as before
• Usually just use to save value of one variable

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4.4.2 The load Command

To load data in a mat file into workspace

load file_name
load( 'file_name')
To load only specific variables from mat
file, e.g., var1 and var2
load file_name var1 var2
load('file_name','var1','var2')
• If variable already exists in workspace, it
is overwritten (its value is replaced by
value in file)
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4.4.2 The load Command

To load data in a text file into workspace

load file_name
variable = load( 'file_name')
• In first form, creates variable called
file_name and stores all file data in it
• If all rows in file don't have same number of
columns, MATLAB displays an error
• Even if data created from multiple variables
all with same number of columns, load
still reads all data into one variable
 Not very useful in this case
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4.5 IMPORTING AND EXPORTING DATA

• MATLAB often used to analyze data collected

by other programs
• Sometimes need to transfer MATLAB data to
other programs
• In this section will only discuss numerical data
 MATLAB has commands to load and save data
from a number of other programs
 Can also tell MATLAB what format data is in

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4.5.1 Commands for Importing and Exporting Data

Will illustrate transferring data with a

specific program by discussing
Microsoft Excel
• Commonly used to store data
• Works with many programs that
gathers data
• Used often by people with technical
data but for which MATLAB is overkill

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4.5.1 Commands for Importing and Exporting Data

Importing and exporting data into and from Excel:

Import (read) data from Excel with

variable_name=xlsread('filename')
• Stores all data in one variable
• If Excel file has multiple sheets, reads
first one
 To read from other sheets, pass command
the sheet name
• Can read rectangular section of sheet by
specifying range in command
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4.5.1 Commands for Importing and Exporting Data

Export (write) data to Excel file with

xlswrite('filename',variable_name)

• Can specify in command name of sheet and

range to write to

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