Chapter 1

Chapter – 1
Introduction to MATLAB
Desktop
Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal
Chapter – 1
Introduction to MATLAB
Desktop

After studying this chapter you should be
able to:
 Gain an overview of MATLAB desktop

 Use help for executing MATLAB commands /
functions
 Write basic MATLAB code and create m-files
 Use MATLAB demos

What is MATLAB?
Matlab is a high level language which has many specialized
toolboxes for making things easier for us. How high?

Matlab
High Level
Languages such as
C, Pascal etc.
Assembly

MATLAB = MATrix LABoratory
Official Website:
www.mathworks.com
or

www.mathworks.in
Advantages of MATLAB
• Ease of use
• Platform independence
• Predefined functions in varied domains
• Integrates Programing, Plotting, Simulation and
Hardware Interface
Disadvantages of MATLAB
• Can be slow
• Commercial software

Getting Started
To start MATLAB, double-click the icon named MATLAB on

your PC’s desktop and the MATLAB working environment pops

up. This is an interactive environment, i.e., you can start
entering commands and obtain results instantly. In the
MATLAB environment, you can see a ‘menubar’ at the top of
the screen and the ‘command window’ along with some other
windows occupy the rest of the screen. In the MATLAB
command window, a command can be executed by typing it at
the MATLAB prompt ( >> ) and pressing the ENTER key.

The MATLAB Desktop

The Command Window
A user can assign values to the variables and write

expressions at the command prompt (>>) in the

command window and they can be executed
instantaneously. As a simple example, try entering the
following commands and observe the results in your
MATLAB command window:
>> a = 2
>> b = 4;
>> c = b+a^2

Variables in MATLAB
No need for types. i.e.,

int a;
double b;

float c;
All variables are created with double precision unless

specified and they are matrices.
Example:
>>x=5;
>>x1=2;
After these statements, the variables are 1x1 matrices

with double precision

Variables and Arrays
Array: A collection of data values organized into

rows and columns, and known by a single name.
Row 1
Row 2
Row 3
arr(3,2)
Row 4
Col 1 Col 2 Col 3 Col 4 Col 5

Arrays :
The fundamental unit of data in MATLAB
Scalars are also treated as arrays by MATLAB (1 row and 1

column).
Row and column indices of an array start from 1.
Arrays can be classified as vectors (one dimensional) and

matrices (Two- Dimentional).
Size of an array is specified by the number of rows and the

number of columns, with the number of rows mentioned first
(For example: n x m array).

Variables in MATLAB
Variable names must begin with a letter, followed by any

combination of letters, numbers and the underscore (_)
character.

The MATLAB language is Case Sensitive: NAME, name and
Name are all different variables.
Give meaningful (descriptive and easy-to-remember) names

for the variables. Never define a variable with the same
name as a MATLAB function or command.

Common types of MATLAB variables
double: 64-bit double-precision floating-point numbers

They can hold real, imaginary or complex numbers in

the range from ±10-308 to ±10308 with 15 or 16 decimal
digits.
>> var = 1 + i ;
char: 16-bit values, each representing a single character

The char arrays are used to hold character strings.
>> comment = ‘This is a character string’ ;
The type of data assigned to a variable determines the

type of variable that is created.
The Command History Window
The Command History window displays a list of commands
that a user has entered in the command window.
The commands remain in the history until they are

•
deleted. A section of these commands can be executed
again by selecting it using (Shift + Arrow) keys.
• To execute the previously executed commands, press
‘UP (↑)’ arrow key at the command prompt.
• Typing the first letter/word of any previous entry,
followed by an UP (↑) arrow displays all the pervious
entries beginning with that letter/word in sequence.
• The command can then be re-executed by pressing
ENTER.

The Command History Window

Current Directory Browser
You can set the current working directory of MATLAB by
typing the path of a particular folder over the Current

Directory window in the MATLAB Desktop. Alternatively,
you can also use the icon to browse and set
the current working directory. Then set the current

directory to a folder where your files are stored.
MATLAB would look for files for execution in current
working directory.

Workspace and Array Editor
When you issue commands like:
>> x = 10;

>> y = [1 2 3 4]; % Array variable
• MATLAB creates variables named x and y, and saves

them in a part of computer memory known as
Workspace.
• The symbol ‘%’ is used in MATLAB for inserting the
comments for the clarity of the codes.
• Anything written after % in a line is not executed (even
if it is an executable statement or expression).

• You can observe the contents of the Workspace by typing
the whos command

• Double-clicking on any variable in the Workspace Browser
Window brings up the Array Editor which allows the user
to observe and modify the information stored in the
variable. Any variable on Workspace can be manipulated
using the array editor.

The Help Browser
The “?” icon on the MATLAB desktop launches the Help
Window, which provides links to the documentation on
all the components (or toolboxes) for your MATLAB

version. It provides an important and dynamic reference
for working on MATLAB.
There is another simpler way to get help on different
functions e.g. by typing >> help sqrt at the

command prompt you get the help on function ‘sqrt’.

The Edit/Debug Window
The Editor/Debugger is a single tool that can be used for

editing, debugging, or both.

You can open a New File in the Editor Window using the
toolbar:

Instead of writing the commands directly in the Command
Window, a series of commands may be placed into a file
known as script file or M-file (saved with extension “.m”). The
entire file can be executed just by typing its name (without

extension name) at the command prompt. For example,
consider the following file ‘simple.m’:
-----------------simple.m--------------------
x = 10;
y = x/4;
z = y*9;
------------------------------------------------
This can be executed in command space in the following
manner (assuming the file is in the current working directory):
>> simple

Path Browser
• The Path Browser allows you to view and modify the
MATLAB search path.
• It allows the user to add, delete, or change the order of
directories in the path.

• Make sure that the folder where you have saved your M-
file exists in MATLAB Path, otherwise it won’t be
executed.
• If there are more than one functions, commands or script
files (M-files) with the same name, the first one found in
the search path will be executed and all the others will be
inaccessible.
It is extremely important not to define a variable with
the same name as a standard MATLAB function or
command, which will make that function inaccessible !!
Getting Help from Command Window
To access help from command window, type ‘help’ at the

MATLAB prompt and press ENTER. e.g.

>> help
>> help plot
To search a particular topic by title, the lookfor command

proves useful. For example,
>> lookfor integral
The output of this is a list of several functions that are related

to integrals and contain the word ‘integral’ in their help
documentation.

Other important commands with similar purpose are:
what : lists the MATLAB related files found in the current

working directory,

dir : lists all files in the current working directory,
which FUNCT : displays the full pathname of the function

with the name FUNCT.
You can also learn how to effectively use help command by

typing the following:
>> help help

General Syntax
• MATLAB automatically creates a variable in the memory as
soon as it is assigned a value.
• The variable names must begin with a letter, followed by
any combination of letters, numbers and the underscore (_ )
character.

• Variable names are case sensitive, in the sense that the
uppercase and lowercase letters are distinguished. For
example, “MULT”, “mult” and “Mult” are three different
variables.
MATLAB requires that all variable names (except for those used
by symbolic toolbox) be assigned numeric values prior to being
used in an expression. For example:
>> a=2.3;
>> b = 4.7;
>> d = c + a*b;
MATLAB responds as:
??? Undefined function or variable 'c'.

Several variables (or expressions) can also be defined in the
same line, separated by a comma (,) or a semicolon (;). For
example, when you type the following:
>> x=1.1, y=3.3, z=5.5
MATLAB responds with the following display:

x =
1.1
y =
3.3
z =
5.5
The use of semicolons in place of the commas would suppress

the outputs, e.g.
>> x=3.5; y=1.9; z=2.75;

Writing Simple Expressions
Unlike many other programing languages, you need not
declare the type of values a variable can take in MATLAB.
For example, a variable a can take an integer value, and
in the next step, you can assign the same variable a float
value and in the third step, you can assign it a string and

so on. Here is an example:
>> newvar = 5
newvar =
5
>> newvar = 20.197
newvar =
20.1970
>> newvar = 'surabhi'
newvar =
surabhi

Operators (arithmetic)
+ addition

- subtraction
* multiplication
/ division
^ power
‘ complex conjugate transpose

Writing Simple Expressions
variable_name = expression :

addition a+b  a+b
subtraction a-b  a-b
multiplication axb  a*b
division a/b  a/b
exponent ab  a^b

Hierarchy of operations
Guess what is value of this ? :
x=3*2+6/2

Processing order of operations is important
– parentheses (starting from the innermost)
– exponentials (from left to right)
– multiplications and divisions (from left to right)
– additions and subtractions (from left to right)
>> x = 3 * 2 + 6 / 2
x =
9
The parentheses ( ) are used in complex operations. Other
braces (such as { } and [ ] ) are reserved for special
purposes in MATLAB. Here are some examples of writing
simple expressions:

Mathematical Expression MATLAB Code
1. x + 2y – 3 (y-x) x + 2*y – 3* (y-x)

2. 2 x3 + 5/x5 2*x^3 + 5/x^5
3. 5 x1/3 + 9 y0.173 5*x^(1/3) + 9*y^(0.173)
4. 3 tan(x)/ (1+ sin2(x)) 3*tan(x)/(1+(sin(x))^2)

Screen Display Control (The "format"
function):
MATLAB performs numeric computations in double-precision

format. The number of digits after the decimal of a floating

point number can be controlled by using the format command.
>> format % this is same as 'format short', the
% default format
>> pi % pi has a pre-defined value in MATLAB
ans =
3.1416
>> format long % change the display format to long
>> pi
ans =
3.14159265358979

>> format long e
>> pi
ans =

3.141592653589793e+000
>> format hex
>> pi
ans =
400921fb54442d18

>> format compact
>> x = 2, y = 3,
x =
2
y =

3
This results in the values being displayed, but the

display is compact to save your Desktop area.
See >> help format for more details on the other

display formats available with MATLAB

Changing the data format
>> value = 12.345678901234567;

format short  12.3457
format long  12.34567890123457
format short e  1.2346e+001
format long e  1.234567890123457e+001
format short g  12.346
format long g  12.3456789012346
format rat  1000/81

MATLAB Demonstrations
MATLAB is shipped with a number of demonstration programs.

Use >> help demos to find out more about these. You can
also type >> demo on the MATLAB prompt to enter the
demonstration programs. The number of demos depends upon
the version of MATLAB that you have.

How to Quit MATLAB ?
You can leave a MATLAB session by typing quit or by typing

exit at the MATLAB prompt. If MATLAB session enters into an

infinite loop, you can interrupt the running of the program by
a “Ctrl+c” command the from keyboard, and thus you would
get back to the command prompt.

Summary (some important commands)
help command  Online help
lookfor keyword  Lists related commands

which  Version and location info
clear  Clears the workspace variable
clc  Clears the command window
who, whos  Lists content of the workspace
ctrl+c  Aborts operation
…  Continuation
%  Comments

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Chapter – 1

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

 Gain an overview of MATLAB desktop

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal

To start MATLAB, double-click the icon named MATLAB on

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

A user can assign values to the variables and write

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal

No need for types. i.e.,

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

All variables are created with double precision unless

After these statements, the variables are 1x1 matrices

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal

Array: A collection of data values organized into

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

Col 1 Col 2 Col 3 Col 4 Col 5

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal

Scalars are also treated as arrays by MATLAB (1 row and 1

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

Row and column indices of an array start from 1.

Arrays can be classified as vectors (one dimensional) and

Size of an array is specified by the number of rows and the

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal

Variable names must begin with a letter, followed by any

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

Give meaningful (descriptive and easy-to-remember) names

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal

double: 64-bit double-precision floating-point numbers

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

char: 16-bit values, each representing a single character

The type of data assigned to a variable determines the

The commands remain in the history until they are

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

the current working directory. Then set the current

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal

When you issue commands like:

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

• MATLAB creates variables named x and y, and saves

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

There is another simpler way to get help on different

functions e.g. by typing >> help sqrt at the

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal

The Editor/Debugger is a single tool that can be used for

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

Programming in MATLAB Authors: Ram N. Patel & Ankush Mittal

Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd

To access help from command window, type ‘help’ at the

1. x + 2y – 3 (y-x) x + 2y – 3 (y-x)