Introduction to Matlab

Basic Matlab Commands and Syntax

This document teaches the user how to create Matlab matrices, learn about
Matlab plots and printing,

and discover how to use mathematical equations in Matlab, and to acquire

rudimentary Matlab skills.

Rice University, 2002 All Rights Reserved

Document may not be resold to, used by, nor licensed to third parties without
written permission from User Services, Rice University.2

Table of Contents

What is Pro-
Matlab? ................................................................................................ 3

Entering and Leaving

Matlab................................................................................... 3

Variables and the

Workspace.................................................................................... 3

Defining Numbers and Characters....................................................................

3

Examining Numbers and Characters ................................................................

4

Workspace Commands .....................................................................................

4

Mathematical
Functions ........................................................................................... 4

Basic Math ........................................................................................................

4

A Little Higher Math ........................................................................................ 5

Polynomials.......................................................................................................
5

Linear Equation Solving ...................................................................................

5
Graphing............................................................................................................
....... 5

Creating the Graph............................................................................................

5

Printing the Graph.............................................................................................

6

M-
files ....................................................................................................................
.. 6

Scripts and Functions........................................................................................

6

Control Flow .....................................................................................................

7

For Loops................................................................................................... 7

While.......................................................................................................... 7

If Then ....................................................................................................... 7

Function
Functions................................................................................................... 7

Numerical Integration .......................................................................................

7

Finding Zeros ....................................................................................................

8

Differential Equation Solving ...........................................................................

8

Problems or
Questions ............................................................................................. 8

Faculty, Staff, and Graduate Students: .............................................................

8

Undergraduates: ...............................................................................................
.8

If you have any

comments or
suggestions about

this document, send

them to

problem@rice.edu

via electronic mail.What is Pro-Matlab?

What is Pro-Matlab?

Pro-Matlab (Matlab) is an interactive software package from the Math Works

Inc. Matlab stands for Matrix Laboratory. It will define and perform operations
on both numbers and characters. There are a number of higher math
functions, such as filtering and numeric integration, built into the package.
Matlab also has a graphics interface, and the

capablility for programming through M-files.

Entering and Leaving Matlab

There are two ways to start Matlab on the Rice Unix Facility. (These methods
will also work for Information Systems

and Owlnet.) One is to type

% matlab

in an xterm. Another is to use the right button menu option for Matlab. The
test accounts used for this course have this

option. If you have a personal Unix account on RUF, IS, or Owlnet and you do
not have Matlab as a menu option, you

can add the following line to your .twmrc file.

“Matlab” ! "xterm -n Matlab -e sh -c /usr/local/gomatlab &”

To exit Matlab. you simply type:

quit

in the Matlab window.

Try one of these methods to start Matlab. Exit, and try the other. Please do
not run more than one copy of Matlab at
any given time on this system, as we only have a limited number of licenses,
and if you run two another user may not

be able to run any.

Variables and the Workspace

Defining Numbers and Characters

To define a scalar we may simply use the equal sign.

a=3

To define a vector we use the equal sign and square brackets.

v=[3 5 7]

Matrix definition follows the same form as vector definition. The matrix rows
are separated by semicolons, or by

returns.

ml=[1 2 3; 4 5 6]

or

m2=[1 2 3

4 5 6]

To define character variables we use the equal sign and single quotes.

c=’abc’Mathematical Functions

Examining Numbers and Characters

who This command lists the names of all currently defined variables.

size Size (name) returns the size of the variable (name).

clear Erases the values of all defined variables.

Workspace Commands

save Saves all of the defined variables into a workspace called matlab.mat.

save (name) Saves variables to a workspace called name.mat.

load Loads the workspace matlab.mat.

load (name) Loads the workspace name.mat.

diary Saves everything you see in the Matlab window into a text file.

help Lists all of the available operators and functions.

help (cmd) Lists the help file for (cmd).

Mathematical Functions

Basic Math

+ Is the addition operator.

- Is the subtraction operator.

* Performs multiplication.

/ Performs right division. (b/a = b*Inv(a))

\ Performs left division. (b\a= Inv(a)*b)

^ Performs exponentiation.

For scalar-scalar or scalar-matrix operations these perform as we expect

them to. For matrix-matrix operations Matlab assumes it is attempting to
perform matrix math operations. To perform element to element operations
you must

place a . before the operator.

Note: if the left hand argument is an integer, there should be a space

between the integer and the . operator, or else two

.S‘..Graphing

A Little Higher Math

Matlab has a wide variety of built in higher math functions. We won't be able
to cover all of them here, but for further

information you can consult the on-line demo, and the tutorial and reference
sections of the Math-Works Pro-MATLAB manual.

Polynomials

There are a number of operations we may perform involving polynomials.

One of these is root finding. Matlab will
automatically find the roots of a polynomial with the roots function. The
syntax is:

roots(coeff)

where coeff is a vector of the polynomial's coefficients ordered by descending

powers of x.

Polynomials are also useful in data fitting. Given two vectors of experimental
points we can fit different orders of

polynomial to them using polyfit, and polyval. polyfit(x,y,n) returns the

coefficients of a polynomial of order n that

fits x to y. polyval(c,x) returns the value of a polynomial in x with coefficients

c. Try out polyfit and polyval on the

vectors xdata and ydata in the workspace test1. Compare the ydata values
and the yexpected values for several orders

of polynomial.

Linear Equation Solving

Matlab is very handy to solve series of linear equations. We define the

equation coefficients as a matrix, and the scalar

answers as a transposed vector. For instance, if we wanted to solve the

following equations:

3x1 +5x2=6

4x1 - 8x2=1

we would define

mat=[3 5; 4 -8]

vec=[6 1]

To solve we need to divide. However, the matrix inner dimensions do not

agree, so we can't. We need to transpose the

vector, using a single quote.

vec=vec’

Then we can divide

mat \vec
and solve the equations.

Graphing

Creating the Graph

The basic graphics command in Matlab is plot. Plot will take multiple
arguments, always in x,y pairs. For instance:

plot(x,y,x,z,w,d)M-files

will plot 3 curves: y versus x, z versus x and d versus w. Each of the lines will
be a different linetype. The axes will be

set to accomodate all 3 lines fully. Each new plot command clears the screen
before plotting. If you wish to overlay

curves made from multiple plot commands you need to use the hold
command. It may be used alone, as a toggle, or

with on and off to specify hold on, hold off. To plot points, instead of lines,
you give the plot command an extra argument, that being the point style you
wish to use. For instance:

plot(x,y,'o',x,z,'+')

will plot y versus x points as open circles, and z versus x points as +'s.

Warning: Matlab will automatically furnish you with a graphics window. Do

NOT kill this window. It will exit

automatically when you leave Matlab. If you kill the graphics window and
then try to plot again, Matlab will

spontaneously exit, taking all your hard work with it.

The graph may also be labeled. To label the x and y axes we use the xlabel
and ylabel commands. For a title, we use

the title command.

xlabel(‘This is the x axis')

ylabel (‘This is the y axis')

title (‘ Nifty y x plot.')

Printing the Graph

Printing is extremely simple in Matlab. All you need to do, once the graph is
just how you want it, is type print in the

Matlab window. Matlab will automatically select the default laser printer. On
some systems you may be charged for

this printing.

If you would rather save your plot to a file, the command of interest is meta.
Simply type meta in the Matlab window,

and your plot will be saved to a file called matlab.met. If this file already
exists, your plot will be appended to the end

of it. To print this file you will need to convert into a filetype that your printer
of choice can interpret. Matlab comes

packaged with a graphics post processor for just this purpose. Typing !gpp in
the matlab window will give a fairly self

explanatory manual page for gpp.

Note: ! is the shell escape for matlab. Thus, if you would prefer, the gpp stuff
can be done in an xterminal.

M-files

Scripts and Functions

Matlab can also be used as a programming language. To program in Matlab

you simply create a text file containing

Matlab commands exactly as you would type them interactively in the Matlab
window. The file may have any legal

unix name, and should end with a .m extension. These files may be placed in
your root directory, or a directory named

/matlab. (Any other directories would have to be explicitly added to your

Matlabpath.)

There are two types of m-files in matlab. One is called a script. This is simply
a list of Matlab commands with no

header. The other type is a function. Functions have a header line that may
look something like:

function y=fun1(x)
Functions may be passed arguments, and may return results. To invoke a
script or a function you simply type the filename (without the .m extension)
into the Matlab window. You will also notice that m-files which you create are

included in the help listing. If you perform a help on a specific m-file, help will
return any comments which appear Function Functions

before the first line of actual code in the m-file.

Control Flow

Matlab does have flow control statements. Although these may be used in an
interactive fashion, they are frequently

less confusing and generally more useful in conjuntion with m-file

programming. There are three main constructions.

For Loops

To iterate in Matlab we may employ a “for” loop. The syntax is:

for i = 1:n,

v(i)=i+2

end

While

While statements employ the logical operators. For instance:

while n

=1

n=n/2

end

If Then

Matlab also has the conditional if, elseif, then statements. For example,

if i ==j,

a(i,j) = 2;
elseif (i-j) == 1,

a(i,j) = -1;

else

a(i,j) = 0;

end

Function Functions

There is a class of Matlab routines which require you to define a function to

use them. Several of them are worth

examining.

Numerical Integration

There are two numerical integration functions built into Matlab. These are
quad and quad 8. The syntax for both of

them is:

quad (‘f’,a,b)

Where a and b define the range to integrate the function over, and 'f’ comes
from an m-file called f.m which returns

the value of f(x) .Problems or Questions

Finding Zeros

There are two routines for finding the zeros of functions. These are fmin, for 1
variable functions, and fmins, for multivariable functions. Fmin has the same
syntax as quad and quad8. Since fmins uses a simplex routine it needs only a

starting point, not a range to work in.

fmin ( ‘f’,a,b)

fmins (‘f’,x)

Differential Equation Solving

Matlab is equipped with 2 numerical differential equation solvers. These are

ode23 and ode45. These routines take

the following arguments:

ode45('yprime',t0, tf, y0)

where yprime is an m-file containing the system of ode's, t0 and tf are the
interval to solve over, and y0 are the initial

conditions to apply.

Problems or Questions

Faculty, Staff, and Graduate Students:

If you have a problem, contact your computing support representative by

sending an e-mail message to problem@rice.edu detailing your question.
Your query is examined by a staff dispatcher for severity and assigned to the

appropriate staff. This is the most effective communication method since

computing support staff are often working

in the field and unreachable by phone. In addition, the dispatcher is aware of

who is on vacation or out ill.

Undergraduates:

If you have a problem, contact your computing support representative by

sending an e-mail message to problem@rice.edu detailing your question.
Your query is automatically assigned to your College Computing Associate

(CCA).

If you need immediate assistance during normal business hours, you can call
the Consulting Center at 713.348.4983.

During the semester, the Consulting Center has limited evening and weekend
hours as well.

To report emergencies, which are urgent system-wide problems (i.e.: all

Wiess' network connections are down or all

the PCs in a lab are non-functional), contact the Operations Center at

713.348.4989. Staff work 24 hours a day, 365

day a year and can page appropriate administrators for major network or
computing problems.

More information is available at http://www.rice.edu/Computer/student.html