MATLAB

Basics

MATLAB User Environment

Workspace/Variable Inspector

Command Window Command History

Getting help
There are several ways of getting help: Basic help on named commands/functions is echoed to the command window by: >> help command-name A complete help system containing full text of manuals is started by: >> helpdesk

System Environment
Windows
MATLAB installed in c:\matlab6.5 Your codeanywhere convenient (e.g. h:\matlab)

Linux (Environment network)

MATLAB installed in /apps/matlab Your code in /home/username/matlab Your environment configuration in ~/.matlab

startup.m
The script $matlab_root\toolbox\local\matlabrc.m is always run at startup it reads system environment variables etc, and initialises platform dependent settings. If present it will run a user defined initialisation script: startup.m
Linux: /home/user/matlab/startup.m Windows: $matlab_root\toolbox\local\startup.m

Use startup.m for setting paths, forcing preferred settings, etc.

Example startup.m file (for my laptop)

%------------------------------------% Matlab startup file for IMB's laptop %------------------------------------%-- add paths for my m-files -addpath d:/matlab addpath d:/matlab/bulk2.5 addpath d:/matlab/bulk2.6 addpath d:/matlab/coastal addpath d:/matlab/lidar addpath d:/matlab/ndbc addpath d:/matlab/page addpath d:/matlab/sections addpath d:/matlab/sharem addpath d:/matlab/wavelet addpath d:/matlab/LEM addpath d:/matlab/GPSbook addpath d:/matlab/FAAM addpath d:/matlab/FAAM/winds addpath d:/matlab/faam/bae %-- add netCDF toolbox -addpath c:/matlab701/bin addpath c:/matlab701/bin/win32 addpath d:/matlab/netcdf addpath d:/matlab/netcdf/ncfiles addpath d:/matlab/netcdf/nctype addpath d:/matlab/netcdf/ncutility %-- add path for generic data -addpath d:/matlab/coastlines % coastline data

addpath d:/cw96/flight_data/jun02 % raw cw96 addpath d:/cw96/flight_data/jun07 % aircraft data addpath d:/cw96/flight_data/jun11 addpath d:/cw96/flight_data/jun12 addpath d:/cw96/flight_data/jun17 addpath d:/cw96/flight_data/jun19 addpath d:/cw96/flight_data/jun21 addpath d:/cw96/flight_data/jun23 addpath d:/cw96/flight_data/jun26 addpath d:/cw96/flight_data/jun29 addpath d:/cw96/flight_data/jul01
addpath d:/cw96/runs % run definitions for cw96 flights %---------------------------------------------------------------------%-- set default figure options -set(0,'DefaultFigurePaperType','a4') % this should be the default in EU anyway set(0,'DefaultFigurePaperUnits','inches') % v6 defaults to cm for EU countries set(0,'DefaultFigureRenderer','painters') % v7 default OpenGL causes problems

 addpath adds directories to the search path. MATLAB will look in ALL directories on the path for:
Functions and scripts (.m files) MATLAB data files (.mat files)

The set commands in the example startup.m file set some default graphics properties, overriding the defaults will cover these later.

It will also look in the current directory

The WORKSPACE
MATLAB maintains an active workspace, any variables (data) loaded or defined here are always available. Some commands to examine workspace, move around, etc:
who : lists variables in workspace
>> who Your variables are: x y

whos : lists names and basic properties of variables in the workspace

>> whos Name
x y Size 3x1 3x2 Bytes 24 48 Class double array double array

Grand total is 9 elements using 72 bytes

pwd, cd, dir, ls : similar to operating system (but no option switches)

>> pwd ans =

D:\
>> cd cw96\jun02 >> dir . 30m_wtv.mat .. 960602_sst.mat

edson2km.mat jun02_30m_runs.mat edson_2km_bulk.mat

VARIABLES
Everything (almost) is treated as a doubleprecision floating point array by default
Typed variables (integer, float, char,) are supported, but usually used only for specific applications. Not all operations are supported for all typed variables. [IDL uses typed variables, but allows mixing of types...at least to some extent]

>> x=[1 2 3] x = 1 2

When defining variables, a space or comma separates elements on a row.

>> x=[1,2,3] x = 1 2 >> x=[1 2 3 4]; >> x=[1;2;3;4] x = 1 2 3 4

3 A newline or semicolon forces a new row; these 2 statements are equivalent. NB. you can break definitions across multiple lines.

 1 & 2D arrays are treated as formal matrices

Matrix algebra works by default:
>> a=[1 2]; >> b=[3 4]; >> a*b ans = 11 >> b*a ans = 3 4 6 8 1x2 row oriented array (vector) (Trailing semicolon suppresses display of output) 2x1 column oriented array

Result of matrix multiplication depends on order of terms (non-cummutative)

 Element-by-element operation is forced by preceding operator with .

>> a=[1 2]; >> b=[3 4]; >> a.*b ??? Error using ==> times Matrix dimensions must agree.

Size and shape must match

>> a=[1 2] A = 1 >> b=[3 4];

No trailing semicolon, immediate display of result 2

>> a.*b ans = 3

>> c=a+b c = 4

Element-by-element multiplication
8 Matrix addition & subtraction operate element-by-element anyway. Dimensions of matrix must still match!

>> A = [1:3;4:6;7:9] A = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >> mean(A) ans = 4 5 >> sum(A) ans = 12

Most common functions operate on columns by default

15

18

INDEXING ARRAYS
n m

MATLAB indexes arrays:

1 to N [row,column] [1,1 2,1 3,1 . m,1 1,2 2,2 3,2 . m,2 . . . . . 1,n 2,n 3,n m,n]

IDL indexes arrays:

0 to N-1 [column,row]
[0,0 1,0 0,1 1,1 0,2 1,2 . . 0,m-1 1,m-1 . n-1,0 . n-1,1 . n-1,2 . . . n-1,m-1]

>> A = [1:3;4:6;7:9] A = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >> A(2,3) ans = 6 >> A(1:3,2) ans = 2 5 8 >> A(2,:) ans = 4 The colon indicates a range, a:b (a to b)

A colon on its own indicates ALL values 5 6

THE COLON OPERATOR

Colon operator occurs in several forms
To indicate a range (as above) To indicate a range with non-unit increment
>> N = 5:10:35 N =

15

25

35

>> P = [1:3; 30:-10:10] P = 1 30 2 20 3 10

 To extract ALL the elements of an array (extracts everything to a single column vector)
>> A = [1:3; 10:10:30;
100:100:300] A = 1 10 100 2 20 200 3 30 300

>> A(:) ans = 1 10 100 2 20 200 3 30 300

LOGICAL INDEXING
Instead of indexing arrays directly, a logical mask can be used an array of same size, but consisting of 1s and 0s usually derived as result of a logical expression.
>> X = [1:10] X = 1 ii = 0 >> X(ii) ans = 7 8 9 10 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >> ii = X>6

Basic Operators
+, -, *, / : basic numeric operators \ : left division (matrix division) ^ : raise to power : transpose (of matrix) flip along diagonal fliplr(), flipud() : flip matrix about vertical and horizontal axes.

SAVING DATA
MATLAB uses its own platform independent file format for saving data files have a .mat extension The save command saves variables from the workspace to a named file (or matlab.mat if no filename given)
save filename saves entire workspace to filename.mat save var1 var2 filename saves named variables to filename.mat

By default save overwrites an existing file of the same name, the append switch forces appending data to an existing file (but variables of same name will be overwritten!)
save var1 var2 filename -append

 Data is recovered with the load command

load filename loads entire .mat file load filename var1 var2 loads named variables load filename ascii loads contents of an ascii flatfile in a variable filename. The ascii file must contain a rectangular array of numbers so that it loads into a single matrix. X=load(filename,-ascii) loads the ascii file into a variable X save var1 filename ascii saves a single variable to an ascii flat file (rectangular array of numbers)

 There have been changes to the internal format of .mat files between MATLAB v4 and v5 (major changes to allow arrays with more than 2 dimensions, structures, cell arrays), and again with v7 (minor change to use unicode instead of ascii). Later versions will load old format files. You can force save to an old file format with v4 and v6 switches

save filename v6