MATLAB for
Engineers ME1201
Introduction to MATLAB
Module 1
Introduction to MATLAB environment and
commands
Lecture 1 and 2
Introduction, aims and objectives of the course and discussion on course handout
Introduction to MATLAB environment and commands
• On almost all systems, MATLAB works through three
basic windows
Basics • Command Window
• Figure Window
• Editor Window
Command Window-
Type commands
Command Window-
Type commands
Current Directory-
.m files
Command Window-
Type commands
Current Directory-
.m files
Command Window-
Type commands
Current Directory-
.m files
Command Window-
Type commands
Workspace: This subwindow lists all
variables that you have generated so
far and shows their type and size.
Recap
• The command window is where you'll give MATLAB its input and view its
output.
• The workspace shows you all of your current working variables and other
objects.
• The history shows you all commands you used in CW.
• The Editor for MATLAB scripts (M-files) . To save & run the m-file type 'F5'.
To open the editor with a new or old m-file use the command open file_name
Frequently Used Commands
what List all m-files in current directory
dir/ls List all files in current directory
type test Display test.m in command window
delete test Delete test.m
cd/chdir Change directory
pwd Show current directory
which test Display directory path to ‘closest’ test.m
who List known variables
whos List known variables plus their size
clear Clear variables from workspace
clc Clear the command window
Frequently Used Commands
For help, command description etc use F1 or following
commands:
◼ help command_name
◼ helpwin command_name
◼ doc command_name
◼ helpdesk command_name
◼ demo command_name
◼ lookfor keyword (search unknown command)
MATLAB and Matrices
MATLAB treats all variables as matrices. For our purposes a matrix can
be thought of as an array, in fact, that is how it is stored.
Vectors are special forms of matrices and contain only one row OR one
column
Scalars are matrices with only one row AND one column
Arrays and Vectors
An array is a list of numbers or expressions arranged in horizontal rows and
vertical columns.
When an array has only one row or column, it is called a vector
An array with m rows and n columns is called a matrix of size m x n.
Arrays and Vectors
You already know how to launch MATLAB. Go ahead and try the commands
shown
A row vector x with three elements can be created as :
A row vector y with three elements can be created as :
Arrays and Vectors
You can also add (or subtract) two vectors of the same size.
But you cannot add (or subtract) a row vector to a column vector
Arrays and Vectors
You can multiply (or divide) the elements of two same-sized vectors term by
term with the array operator .* (or . /)
But multiplying a vector with a scalar does not need any special operation
(no dot before the * )
Arrays and Vectors
Create a vector x with 5 elements linearly spaced between 0 and 10.
Trigonometric functions sin, cos , etc., as well as elementary math functions
sqrt, exp, log, etc., operate on vectors term by term.
Class Assignment I
Class Assignment
Lecture 3 and 4
Creating and Working with Arrays of Numbers, Creating and Printing Simple Plots, Creating,
Saving, and Executing a Script File
Working with Arrays and Matrices, Working with Anonymous Functions
Creating and Printing Plots
Draw a circle of unit radius.
• To do this, first generate the data ( x- and y-coordinates of, say, 100 points
on the circle), then plot the data, and finally print the graph.
• For generating data, use the parametric equation of a unit circle:
Creating and Printing Plots
Draw a circle of unit radius.
• To do this, first generate the data ( x- and y-coordinates of, say, 100 points
on the circle), then plot the data, and finally print the graph.
• For generating data, use the parametric equation of a unit circle:
Create a linearly spaced 100 elements-long vector 𝜃 .
Creating and Printing Plots
Draw a circle of unit radius.
• To do this, first generate the data ( x- and y-coordinates of, say, 100 points
on the circle), then plot the data, and finally print the graph.
• For generating data, use the parametric equation of a unit circle:
The command axis ( ' equal ') directs MATLAB to use the same scale
MATLAB draws an ellipse rather than a circle
on both axes, so that a circle appears as a circle. You can also use
because of its default rectangular axes.
axis ( ' square ') to override the default rectangular axes.
Creating and Printing Plots
Draw a circle of unit radius.
• To do this, first generate the data ( x- and y-coordinates of, say, 100 points
on the circle), then plot the data, and finally print the graph.
• For generating data, use the parametric equation of a unit circle:
Creating and Printing Plots
Class Assignment II
Creating, Saving, and Executing a Script File
In MATLAB online, a new file can be directly
opened using “new script”
New script can also be opened using “edit”
command
Creating, Saving, and Executing a Script File
Creating, Saving, and Executing a Script File
MATLAB tells about the script
Creating, Saving, and Executing a Script File
Class Assignment III
Class Assignment III
Creating and executing function file
Working with Arrays and Matrices
Working with Arrays and Matrices
Working with Arrays and Matrices
Working with Arrays and Matrices
Working with Arrays and Matrices
Class Assignment IV
Working with Anonymous Functions
Working with Anonymous Functions
Working with Anonymous Functions
Working with Anonymous Functions
Symbolic Computation
The most important step in carrying out symbolic computation is to declare the independent variables
to be symbolic before you do anything with them.
Suppose you want to use x and y as symbolic variables
Symbolic Computation
Symbolic Computation
Symbolic Computation
Class Assignment V
Importing and Exporting Data
Mat-file: This is MATLAB's native binary format file for saving data. Two commands , s ave and
load make it particularly easy to save data into and load data from these files.
M-file: If you have a text file containing data, or you want to write a text file containing data
that you would eventually like to read in MATLAB , making it an M-file may be an excellent
option.
Importing and Exporting Data
Importing and Exporting Data
If it is not possible to type the entire input on the same line, then use three consecutive
periods ( . . . ) to signal continuation and continue the input on the next line.
The three periods are called an ellipsis.
From a given matrix, picking out either a range of rows or columns or a
set of noncontiguous rows or columns is straightforward
As a vector: All the elements of matrix A can be strung into a single-column vector b by the
command b = A ( :) (matrix A is stacked in vector b columnwise)
If matrix A is an m x n matrix, it can be reshaped into a p x q matrix, as long as mx n = p x q, with
the command re shape (A , p, q) .
A row can be easily appended to an existing matrix, provided the row has the same length as the length of
the rows of the existing matrix.
A= [A ; u] appends a row vector u to the rows of A, while A= [A v] appends a column vector v to the
columns of A.
All character strings are entered within two single right-quote characters
Character strings can be manipulated just like matrices.
Relational Operators
Relational Operator Meaning
< Less than
<= Less than or equal
> Greater than
>= Greater than or equal
== Equal
~= Not equal
Ex- a=[1 2 3]; b=[1 2 2]; a==b returns ans=1 1 0 since the last case did not
match.
Logical Operators and Functions
Logical Operator Meaning
& And
| Or
~ Not
Flow Control
• Matlab has four kinds of statements which can be
used to control the flow through your code:
• if, else and elseif execute statements based on a logical
test
• switch, case and otherwise execute groups of
statements based on a logical test
• while and end execute statements an indefinite number
of times, based on a logical test
• for and end execute statements a fixed number of
times
For loops
• It allows a group of statements to be repeated a
fixed number of times.
• expression may be of the form i:k or i:j:k
where i is beginning value, k is ending value and j is
increment.
While Loops
• A while loop allows one to repeat a group of
statements as long as the specified condition is
satisfied.
• Don't need to know number of iterations
• Beware of infinite loops!
Polynomials
In MATLAB, polynomials are represented by a row vector
in which the elements are the coefficients an, an-1, …., a1 ,
a0. The first element is the coefficient of the x with the
highest power. The vector has to include all the
coefficients, including the ones that are equal to 0. For
example:
Polynomials
Polynomials
Value of a Polynomial
The value of a polynomial at a point x can be calculated
with the function polyval that has the form:
Polynomials
Calculating polynomials with MATLAB
(a)
>> p = [1 -12.1 40.59 -17.015 -71.95 35.881;
>> polyval(p,9)
ans = (b)
7.2611e+003 >> x = -1.5:0.1:6.7;
>> y = polyval(p,x);
>> plot(x,y)
Roots of a Polynomial
Roots of a polynomial are the values of the argument for
which the value of the polynomial is equal to zero.
>> p = [1 -12.1 40.59 -17.015 -71.95 35.881];
>> r= roots(p)
r=
6.5000
4.0000
2.3000
-1.2000
0.5000
Polynomial of Roots
When the roots of a polynomial are known, the ploy
command can be used for determining the coefficients
of the polynomial. The form of the ploy command is:
>> r= [6.5 4 2.3 -1.2 0.5]
>> p=poly(r)
p=
1.0000
-12.1000
40.5900
-17.0150
-71.9500
35.8800
Derivatives of Polynomials
The built-in function polyder can be used to calculate the
derivative of a single polynomial as
Curve fitting
• Curve fitting, also called regression analysis, is a process of
fitting a function to a set of data points.
• The function can then be used as a mathematical model
of the data.
• Since there are many types of functions (linear, polynomial,
power, exponential, etc.) curve fitting can be a
complicated process.
Curve Fitting with Polynomials, the
po1yfit Function
• Make polynomials of different degrees fit for the
set of seven points given by:
(0.9, 0.9), (1.5, 1.5), (3, 2.5), (4, 5.I), (6,4.5), (8,4.9),
and (9.5, 6.3)
Curve Fitting with Polynomials, the
po1yfit Function
Curve Fitting with Functions Other
than Polynomials
Fitting an equation to data points
Interpolation in MATLAB
'nearest' - nearest neighbor interpolation
'linear' - linear interpolation
'spline' - piecewise cubic spline interpolation (SPLINE)
'pchip' - piecewise cubic Hemite interpolation
'cubic' - same as 'pchip'
'v5cubic' - the cubic interpolation, which does not extrapolate and
uses 'spline' if X is not equally spaced.
• The following data points, which are points of
the function f(x) = 1.5xcos (2x), are given.
• Use linear, spline, and pchip interpolation
methods to calculate the value of y between
the points.
• Make a figure for each of the interpolation
methods.
• In the figure show the points, a plot of the
function, and a curve that corresponds to the
interpolation method.
