BME6101 Manufacturing of Biomedical

Devices

Lecture 04 (Part I)
Introduction to Matlab

Dr. Raymond H. W. Lam

(prepared based on materials from

BME2036 Engineering Computing)
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Department of Biomedical Engineering City University of Hong Kong
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MATLAB
• The name MATLAB stands for matrix laboratory.
– MATLAB was originally written to provide easy access to matrix
software developed by the LINPACK and EISPACK projects.
– Today, MATLAB uses software developed by the LAPACK and
ARPACK projects, which together represent the state-of-the-art
in software for matrix computation.
• MATLAB is an interactive system whose basic data
element is an array that does not require dimensioning.
• This allows users to solve many technical computing
problems, especially those with matrix and vector
formulations
• For numerical computation, it takes much less time to
write a program in MATLAB than in a scalar non-
interactive language such as C or Fortran.

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MATLAB
• MATLAB features a family of application-specific
solutions called toolboxes.
• Toolboxes allow you to learn and apply
specialized technology.
• Toolboxes are comprehensive collections of
MATLAB functions (M-files) that extend the
MATLAB environment to solve particular classes
of problems.
• Areas in which toolboxes are available include
signal processing, control systems, neural
networks, fuzzy logic, wavelets, simulation, and
many others.

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„>>‟ is MATLAB‟s
MATLAB command
prompt for users
to enter
commands
Launch
pad

Command
window

Command
history
(you can cut and paste
previous commands
into command window
to execute)

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MATLAB
• Simple calculation – Try typing the BLUE
colour text at the command window
>> 55-16 The output generated by MATLAB.
A simple calculator!
ans =
39
MATLAB has automatically
>> ans+10 assigned to a variable, ans. Thus
you can now use ans in a
ans = subsequent calculation
49 The output generated by MATLAB.

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MATLAB – Assignment of Scalar Values

• Assignment of value to a scalar variable – Try

typing the blue colour text

>> a = 4 This assign 4 to a scalar variable a

a= MATLAB automatically echo back the

value of a to confirm the operation
4
• Echo printing is a characteristic of MATLAB. It
can be suppressed by terminating the command
line with a semicolon, ; , character.

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MATLAB – Assignment of Scalar Values

• Try typing the blue colour text:

>> A = 6; Semicolon stops the automatic echo function

>> It just returns the command prompt!

Note: All variable names are case-sensitive, i.e. a and A are

two different variables

• Try typing the blue colour text:

>> A Just type the variable name, MATLAB will return its value

A=

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MATLAB – Assignment of Scalar Values

• Try typing the blue colour text:

Several commands on the same line can be
>> a, A
separated by commas or semicolon.
a=
If commas are used, the values will be echo back.
4

A=
6
>> a;A;
>> If semicolon are used, the values will NOT be echo back.

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MATLAB – Arrays, Vectors and Matrices

• An array is a collection of values that are

represented by a single variable name.
• One dimensional arrays are called vectors.
• Two dimensional arrays are called
matrices.
• The scalar variables in the previous slides
are actually treated as a matrix with one
row and one column.

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MATLAB – Arrays, Vectors and Matrices

(cont‟)
• A row vector can be assigned by enclosing
the values of the vector with brackets
>> a = [1 2 3 4 5] Creating a row vector!
a=

1 2 3 4 5
Note: The above assignment overrides the previous assignment of a=4

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MATLAB – Arrays, Vectors and Matrices

(cont‟)
• Row vectors are rarely used to solve
mathematical problem
• Column vectors are usually used.
• To create a column vector, type the blue
color text: b=

>> b=[2;4;6;8;10] 2
MATLAB 4
generates
the output 6
8
10
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MATLAB – Arrays, Vectors and Matrices

(cont‟)
• Or to create a column vector by
transposing a row vector:
>> b =[1 3 5 7 9]' b=
MATLAB
generates 1
the output 3
5
7
9

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MATLAB – Arrays, Vectors and Matrices

(cont‟)
• To create a matrix, use semicolon to
separate each row. Try typing the blue
text:
>> A = [ 1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9]

A=
Output by MATLAB
1 2 3 A is a 3 x 3 matrix
4 5 6
7 8 9

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MATLAB – Arrays, Vectors and Matrices

(cont‟)
• The Enter key can also used to separate
each row. A=
>> A = [2 3 4 2 3 4
MATLAB
567 5 6 7
generates
8 9 10] the output 8 9 10

• Enter whos to get information about all

current variables Name Size Bytes Class

A 3x3 72 double array

>> whos a 1x5 40 double array
MATLAB ans 1x1 8 double array
generates b 5x1 40 double array
the output
Grand total is 20 elements using 160 bytes

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MATLAB – Arrays, Vectors and Matrices

(cont‟)
• To access an individual element of an array,
use the subscript notation i.e.
>> b(4) This is to access the fourth element of vector b
ans = The answer is 7
7
• To access an element in a matrix:
>> A(2,3) To access the element in 2nd row and 3rd
column
ans =
The answer is 7
7
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MATLAB – Arrays, Vectors and Matrices

(cont‟)
• The colon operator, : , is a powerful tool for
creating and manipulating arrays. Try typing
in the blue colour text:
MATLAB generate the output
>> t=1:5 t=
If a colon is used to
separate two numbers,
MATLAB generates the 1 2 3 4 5
numbers between them
using an increment of
one

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MATLAB – Arrays, Vectors and Matrices

(cont‟)
If colons are used to separate three numbers,
>> t=1:0.5:3 MATLAB generates the numbers between first
and third numbers using an increment equal to
MATLAB output the second number
t=
1.0000 1.5000 2.0000 2.5000 3.0000

>> t=10:-1:5 The increment can be a negative number

MATLAB output
t=

10 9 8 7 6 5

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MATLAB – Arrays, Vectors and Matrices

(cont‟)
• The colon operator can also be used as a
wildcard to select the individual rows and
columns of a matrix:
>> A(2,:) Select the second row of the matrix A
MATLAB output
ans =
5 6 7
• The colon operator can also selectively extract
a series of elements from within an array:
>> t(2:4) ans =
MATLAB output
9 8 7
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MATLAB – Mathematical Operations

• The common operators, in order of priority,

are:
High
priority
^ Exponentiation
- Negation
*/ Multiplication and division
\ Left division – it applies to matrix algebra
Low
priority
+- Addition and subtraction

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MATLAB – Mathematical Operations

• Examples:
>> 4*4 Simple calculation
ans =
16

>> y = 2 * 2 The result of the calculation can be assigned

to a variable
y=
4
>> y ^ 2 Operators can be applied to variables
ans =
16

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MATLAB – Mathematical Operations (cont‟)

• Operation on matrices. Example:

>> a = [1 2 3 4 5]; Semicolon „;‟ stop MATLAB to echo the
>> b = [2 4 6 8 10]'; result
Use “ ‟ ” notation to create a column vector

>> a * b Mathematical operators can apply to

matrices
ans =

110

1  2  2  4  3  6  4  8  5 1 0

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MATLAB – Mathematical Operations (cont‟)

• More examples on matrices

>> a = [1 2 3 4 5];
>> b = [2 4 6 8 10]';
2
>> b*a 4
 
ans =  6   1 2 3 4 5
8
2 4 6 8 10  
4 8 12 16 20 10
6 12 18 24 30
8 16 24 32 40
10 20 30 40 50

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MATLAB – Mathematical Operations (cont‟)

• More examples
1 2 3
>> a=[1 2 3];
1 2 3  4 5 6
>> A=[1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9];
7 8 9 
>> a * A
ans = 1 1  2  4  3  7  3 0
30 36 42 12  2 5  3 8  36
13  2 6  3 9  42

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MATLAB – Mathematical Operations (cont‟)

>> b=[4 5 6]';

>> A=[1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9]; 1 2 3  4 
>> A * b  4 5 6  5 
   
ans = 7 8 9  6 
32
77
14  2 5  3 6  32
122 4 4  5 5  6 6  77

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MATLAB – Mathematical Operations (cont‟)

>> A=[1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9];

1 2 3 1 2 3
4 5 6  4 5 6
>> A^2    
ans = 7 8 9  7 8 9 
30 36 42
66 81 96
102 126 150
>> A * A
ans =
30 36 42
66 81 96
102 126 150

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MATLAB – Mathematical Operations (cont‟)

• To square each element of A, .^ (array

operations and element-by-element
operations) can be used:
>> A = [1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9]; 12 22 32 
>> A .^ 2  2 
ans = 4 52 62 
1 4 9 7 2 82 9 2 
16 25 36
49 64 81

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MATLAB – Graphics
>> t=0:2:20
t=
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
>> length(t) „length‟ function tell the length of the array t
ans =
11
>> for i=1:11 Use a loop to calculate the square of each element
v(i)=t(i)^2; „end‟ to end the „for‟ loop
end
>> v
v=
0 4 16 36 64 100 144 196 256 324 400

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MATLAB – Graphics

>> plot(t,v)

>> plot(t,v)
>> title('v versus t')
>> xlabel('value t')
>> ylabel('value v')
>> grid

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MATLAB – Graphics
>> plot(t,v)
>> title('v versus t')
>> xlabel('value t')
>> ylabel('value v')
>> grid
>> axis([0 22 0 450])

xmin xmax ymin ymax

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MATLAB – Graphics

>> t=0:2:20;
>> for i=1:length(t)
vt(i)=t(i)^1.5;
v(i)=t(i)^2;
end
>> plot(t,v,'r',t,vt,'b')

Red color for v Blue color for vt

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MATLAB – Formatted Text Output

%5d %12.5f
>> clear all % Clear all existing all variables
>> t=0:2:10;
>> for i=1:length(t) 0 0.00000
v(i)=t(i)^2;
vt(i)=t(i)^1.5;
end Combine vectors t, v and vt into matrix z
>> z=[t;v;vt];
%5d : display Integer t with 5 spaces
>> fprintf('%5d %12.5f %12.5f\n', z)
0 0.00000 0.00000 %12.5f : display floating point v with
2 4.00000 2.82843 12 space
4 16.00000 8.00000 %12.5f : display floating point vt
6 36.00000 14.69694 with 12 space
8 64.00000 22.62742 \n: new line
10 100.00000 31.62278

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MATLAB – M-files
• M-file contains a series of statements that can be run all
at once.
• It is similar to subroutine or function of other computer
languages
• 2 type of M-files: script file and function file
• A script file is merely a series of MATLAB commands
that are saved on a file. It can be executed by typing the
filename in the command window
• A function file can accept input arguments and return
outputs. It is similar to user-defined functions in
programming languages such as C or BASIC

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Create a Script M-file

>> findv
t v vt
0 0.00000 0.00000
2 4.00000 2.82843 findv.m
4 16.00000 8.00000
6 36.00000 14.69694
8 64.00000 22.62742
10 100.00000 31.62278

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Create a Function M-file

• The syntax for a function M-file:

function outvarName = functioinName(arglist)

% help comments
Statements
outvarName = value

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Create a Function M-file (cont‟)

Filename is same as
the name of the
function

>> clear all

function myresult = mysquare(n) >> t=0:2:10;
for i=1:length(n) >> v=mysquare(t)
x(i)=n(i)^2; v=
end
0 4 16 36 64 100
myresult=x;

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Learning Outcomes
After this lecture, the student would be able to
understand the following:
– The details of the first coursework
– The basic concept of MATLAB
– How to use MATLAB to carry out some simple
arithmetic calculations and matrix calculations
– How to use graphics and formatted text output
in MATLAB
– How to create script and function M-files

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