Octave Quick Reference Octave Version 3.0.0 Killing and Yanking shiftdim (arr, s) rotate the array dimensions.

C-k kill to the end of the line circshift (arr, s) rotate the array elements.
Starting Octave C-y yank the most recently killed text
octave start interactive Octave session M-d kill to the end of the current word Sparse Matrices
octave file run Octave on commands in file M-DEL kill the word behind the cursor sparse (...) create a sparse matrix.
octave --eval code Evaluate code using Octave M-y rotate the kill ring and yank the new top speye (n) create sparse identify matrix.
octave --help describe command line options sprand (n, m, d) sparse rand matrix of density d.
Command Completion and History spdiags (...) sparse generalization of diag.
Stopping Octave TAB complete a command or variable name nnz (s) No. non-zero elements in sparse matrix.
quit or exit exit Octave M-? list possible completions
INTERRUPT (e.g. C-c) terminate current command and RET enter the current line Ranges
return to top-level prompt C-p move ‘up’ through the history list base : limit
C-n move ‘down’ through the history list base : incr : limit
Getting Help M-< move to the first line in the history Specify a range of values beginning with base with no
help list all commands and built-in variables M-> move to the last line in the history elements greater than limit. If it is omitted, the default
help command briefly describe command C-r search backward in the history list value of incr is 1. Negative increments are permitted.
doc use Info to browse Octave manual C-s search forward in the history list
doc command search for command in Octave manual history [-q] [N ] list N previous history lines, omitting Strings and Common Escape Sequences
lookfor str search for command based on str history numbers if -q A string constant consists of a sequence of characters enclosed
history -w [file] write history to file (~/.octave hist if no in either double-quote or single-quote marks. Strings in double-
Motion in Info file argument) quotes allow the use of the escape sequences below.
SPC or C-v scroll forward one screenful history -r [file] read history from file (~/.octave hist if \\ a literal backslash
DEL or M-v scroll backward one screenful no file argument) \" a literal double-quote character
C-l redraw the display edit history lines edit and then run previous commands \’ a literal single-quote character
from the history list \n newline, ASCII code 10
Node Selection in Info run history lines run previous commands from the history \t horizontal tab, ASCII code 9
n select the next node list
p select the previous node [beg ] [end ] Specify the first and last history Index Expressions
u select the ‘up’ node commands to edit or run. var (idx) select elements of a vector
t select the ‘top’ node If beg is greater than end, reverse the list of commands var (idx1, idx2) select elements of a matrix
d select the directory node before editing. If end is omitted, select commands from scalar select row (column) corresponding to
< select the first node in the current file beg to the end of the history list. If both arguments are scalar
> select the last node in the current file omitted, edit the previous item in the history list. vector select rows (columns) corresponding to the
g reads the name of a node and selects it elements of vector
C-x k kills the current node Shell Commands range select rows (columns) corresponding to the
cd dir change working directory to dir elements of range
Searching in Info pwd print working directory : select all rows (columns)
s search for a string ls [options] print directory listing
C-s search forward incrementally getenv (string) return value of named environment
Global and Persistent Variables
C-r search backward incrementally variable global var1 ... Declare variables global.
i search index & go to corresponding node system (cmd) execute arbitrary shell command string global var1 = val Declare variable global. Set intial value.
, go to next match from last ‘i’ command persistent var1 Declare a variable as static to a function.
Matrices persistent var1 = Declare a variable as static to a function
Command-Line Cursor Motion Square brackets delimit literal matrices. Commas separate val and set its initial value.
C-b move back one character elements on the same row. Semicolons separate rows. Commas Global variables may be accessed inside the body of a function
C-f move forward one character may be replaced by spaces, and semicolons may be replaced by without having to be passed in the function parameter list
C-a move to the start of the line one or more newlines. Elements of a matrix may be arbitrary provided they are declared global when used.
C-e move to the end of the line expressions, assuming all the dimensions agree.
M-f move forward a word
Selected Built-in Functions
[ x, y, ... ] enter a row vector EDITOR editor to use with edit history
M-b move backward a word
[ x; y; ... ] enter a column vector
C-l clear screen, reprinting current line at top Inf, NaN IEEE infinity, NaN
[ w, x; y, z ] enter a 2×2 matrix NA Missing value
Inserting or Changing Text PAGER program to use to paginate output
Multi-dimensional Arrays ans last result not explicitly assigned
M-TAB insert a tab character Multi-dimensional arrays may be created with the cat or eps machine precision
DEL delete character to the left of the cursor
C-d delete character under the cursor
reshape commands from two-dimensional sub-matrices. pi π
√
C-v add the next character verbatim squeeze (arr) remove singleton dimensions of the array. 1i −1
C-t transpose characters at the point ndims (arr) number of dimensions in the array. realmax maximum representable value
M-t transpose words at the point permute (arr, p) permute the dimensions of an array. realmin minimum representable value
ipermute (arr, p) array inverse permutation.
[] surround optional arguments ... show one or more arguments Copyright 1996, 1997, 2007 John W. Eaton Permissions on back
Assignment Expressions Paths and Packages Function Handles
var = expr assign expression to variable path display the current Octave cunction path. @func Define a function handle to func.
var (idx) = expr assign expression to indexed variable pathdef display the default path. @(var1, ...) expr Define an anonymous function handle.
var (idx) = [] delete the indexed elements. addpath(dir) add a directory to the path. str2func (str) Create a function handle from a string.
var {idx} = expr assign elements of a cell array. EXEC PATH manipulate the Octave executable path. functions (handle) Return information about a function
pkg list display installed packages. handle.
pkg load pack Load an installed package. func2str (handle) Return a string representation of a
Arithmetic and Increment Operators function handle.
x + y addition handle (arg1, ...) Evaluate a function handle.
x - y subtraction Cells and Structures feval (func, arg1, Evaluate a function handle or string,
x * y matrix multiplication var.field = ... set a field of a structure.
...) passing remaining args to func
x .* y element by element multiplication var{idx} = ... set an element of a cell array. Anonymous function handles take a copy of the variables in the
x / y right division, conceptually equivalent to cellfun(f, c) apply a function to elements of cell array. current workspace.
(inverse (y’) * x’)’ fieldnames(s) returns the fields of a structure.
x ./ y element by element right division
x \ y left division, conceptually equivalent to Statements Miscellaneous Functions
inverse (x) * y eval (str) evaluate str as a command
for identifier = expr stmt-list endfor
x .\ y element by element left division
error (message) print message and return to top level
Execute stmt-list once for each column of expr. The variable
x ^ y power operator
warning (message) print a warning message
identifier is set to the value of the current column during
x .^ y element by element power operator
clear pattern clear variables matching pattern
each iteration.
- x negation
exist (str) check existence of variable or function
+ x unary plus (a no-op) while (condition) stmt-list endwhile who, whos list current variables
x ’ complex conjugate transpose
whos var details of the varibale var
Execute stmt-list while condition is true.
x .’ transpose
++ x (-- x) increment (decrement), return new value break exit innermost loop
Basic Matrix Manipulations
x ++ (x --) increment (decrement), return old value continue go to beginning of innermost loop rows (a) return number of rows of a
return return to calling function columns (a) return number of columns of a
all (a) check if all elements of a nonzero
Comparison and Boolean Operators any (a) check if any elements of a nonzero
These operators work on an element-by-element basis. Both if (condition) if-body [else else-body] endif
arguments are always evaluated. Execute if-body if condition is true, otherwise execute else-
find (a) return indices of nonzero elements
body.
x < y true if x is less than y sort (a) order elements in each column of a
x <= y true if x is less than or equal to y if (condition) if-body [elseif (condition) elseif-body] endif sum (a) sum elements in columns of a
x == y true if x is equal to y Execute if-body if condition is true, otherwise execute the prod (a) product of elements in columns of a
x >= y true if x is greater than or equal to y elseif-body corresponding to the first elseif condition that min (args) find minimum values
x > y true if x is greater than y is true, otherwise execute else-body. max (args) find maximum values
x != y true if x is not equal to y Any number of elseif clauses may appear in an if rem (x, y) find remainder of x/y
x & y true if both x and y are true statement. reshape (a, m, n) reformat a to be m by n
x | y true if at least one of x or y is true diag (v, k) create diagonal matrices
! bool true if bool is false unwind protect body unwind protect cleanup cleanup end linspace (b, l, n) create vector of linearly-spaced elements
Execute body. Execute cleanup no matter how control exits logspace (b, l, n) create vector of log-spaced elements
Short-circuit Boolean Operators body. eye (n, m) create n by m identity matrix
try body catch cleanup end ones (n, m) create n by m matrix of ones
Operators evaluate left-to-right. Operands are only evaluated if
Execute body. Execute cleanup if body fails. zeros (n, m) create n by m matrix of zeros
necessary, stopping once overall truth value can be determined.
Operands are converted to scalars using the all function. rand (n, m) create n by m matrix of random values
Strings
x && y true if both x and y are true
x || y true if at least one of x or y is true
strcmp (s, t) compare strings Linear Algebra
strcat (s, t, ...) concatenate strings chol (a) Cholesky factorization
regexp (str, pat) strings matching regular expression det (a) compute the determinant of a matrix
Operator Precedence regexprep (str, pat, rep) Match and replace sub-strings eig (a) eigenvalues and eigenvectors
Table of Octave operators, in order of increasing precedence. expm (a) compute the exponential of a matrix
; , statement separators Defining Functions hess (a) compute Hessenberg decomposition
= assignment, groups left to right inverse (a) invert a square matrix
function [ret-list] function-name [ (arg-list) ] norm (a, p) compute the p-norm of a matrix
|| && logical “or” and “and”
| & element-wise “or” and “and” function-body pinv (a) compute pseudoinverse of a
< <= == >= > != relational operators endfunction qr (a) compute the QR factorization of a matrix
: colon rank (a) matrix rank
ret-list may be a single identifier or a comma-separated list of sprank (a) structrual matrix rank
+ - addition and subtraction
identifiers delimited by square-brackets. schur (a) Schur decomposition of a matrix
* / \ .* ./ .\ multiplication and division
’ .’ transpose arg-list is a comma-separated list of identifiers and may be svd (a) singular value decomposition
+ - ++ -- ! unary minus, increment, logical “not” empty. syl (a, b, c) solve the Sylvester equation
^ .^ exponentiation
Equations, ODEs, DAEs, Quadrature Polynomials
*fsolve solve nonlinear algebraic equations compan (p) companion matrix
*lsode integrate nonlinear ODEs conv (a, b) convolution
*dassl integrate nonlinear DAEs deconv (a, b) deconvolve two vectors
*quad integrate nonlinear functions poly (a) create polynomial from a matrix
perror (nm, code) for functions that return numeric codes, polyderiv (p) derivative of polynomial
print error message for named function polyreduce (p) integral of polynomial
and given error code polyval (p, x) value of polynomial at x
* See the on-line or printed manual for the complete list of polyvalm (p, x) value of polynomial at x
arguments for these functions. roots (p) polynomial roots
residue (a, b) partial fraction expansion of ratio a/b
Signal Processing
fft (a) Fast Fourier Transform using FFTW Statistics
ifft (a) inverse FFT using FFTW corrcoef (x, y) correlation coefficient
freqz (args) FIR filter frequency response cov (x, y) covariance
filter (a, b, x) filter by transfer function mean (a) mean value
conv (a, b) convolve two vectors median (a) median value
hamming (n) return Hamming window coefficents std (a) standard deviation
hanning (n) return Hanning window coefficents var (a) variance

Image Processing Plotting Functions

colormap (map) set the current colormap plot (args) 2D plot with linear axes
gray2ind (i, n) convert gray scale to Octave image plot3 (args) 3D plot with linear axes
image (img, zoom) display an Octave image matrix line (args) 2D or 3D line
imagesc (img, zoom) display scaled matrix as image patch (args) 2D patch
imshow (img, map) display Octave image semilogx (args) 2D plot with logarithmic x-axis
imshow (i, n) display gray scale image semilogy (args) 2D plot with logarithmic y-axis
imshow (r, g, b) display RGB image loglog (args) 2D plot with logarithmic axes
ind2gray (img, map) convert Octave image to gray scale bar (args) plot bar charts
ind2rgb (img, map) convert indexed image to RGB stairs (x, y) plot stairsteps
loadimage (file) load an image file stem (x, it y) plot a stem graph
rgb2ind (r, g, b) convert RGB to Octave image hist (y, x) plot histograms
saveimage (file, img, fmt, map) save a matrix to file contour (x, y, z) contour plot
title (string) set plot title
C-style Input and Output axis (limits) set axis ranges
fopen (name, mode) open file name xlabel (string) set x-axis label
fclose (file) close file ylabel (string) set y-axis label
printf (fmt, ...) formatted output to stdout zlabel (string) set z-axis label
fprintf (file, fmt, ...) formatted output to file text (x, y, str) add text to a plot
sprintf (fmt, ...) formatted output to string legend (string) set label in plot key
scanf (fmt) formatted input from stdin grid [on|off] set grid state
fscanf (file, fmt) formatted input from file hold [on|off] set hold state
sscanf (str, fmt) formatted input from string ishold return 1 if hold is on, 0 otherwise
fgets (file, len) read len characters from file mesh (x, y, z) plot 3D surface
fflush (file) flush pending output to file meshgrid (x, y) create mesh coordinate matrices
ftell (file) return file pointer position
frewind (file) move file pointer to beginning
freport print a info for open files
fread (file, size, prec) read binary data files Edition 2.0 for Octave Version 3.0.0. Copyright 1996, 2007, John
fwrite (file, size, prec) write binary data files W. Eaton (jwe@octave.org). The author assumes no responsibility
feof (file) determine if pointer is at EOF for any errors on this card.
A file may be referenced either by name or by the number
returned from fopen. Three files are preconnected when Octave This card may be freely distributed under the terms of the GNU
starts: stdin, stdout, and stderr. General Public License.

TEX Macros for this card by Roland Pesch (pesch@cygnus.com),

Other Input and Output functions originally for the GDB reference card
save file var ... save variables in file
load file load variables from file Octave itself is free software; you are welcome to distribute copies
disp (var) display value of var to screen of it under the terms of the GNU General Public License. There is
absolutely no warranty for Octave.