1. Lecture: MATLAB Chapter 1 Introduction
Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef

2. Introduction to MATLAB
technical computing environment for numeric computation and visualization.
MATLAB is an interactive matrix based system for scientific and engineering numeric computation and visualization.
You can solve complex numerical problems in a fraction of the time required with a programming language such as Fortran or C The name MATLAB is derived from MATrix LABoratory
Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef

3. Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef
What is Matlab?
Matlab is basically a high level language which has many specialized toolboxes for making things easier for us
How high?
Assembly
High Level
Languages such as
C, Pascal etc.
Matlab
Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef

4. What are we interested in?
Matlab is too broad for our purposes in this course.
The features we are going to require is
Matlab
Command
Line
m-files
functions
mat-files
Command execution like DOS command window
Series of Matlab commands
Input
Output
capability
Data storage/ loading
Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef

5. Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef
Working
Memory
Command
Window
Command
History
Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef

6. Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef
Variables
No need for types. i.e.,
All variables are created with double precision unless specified and they are matrices.
After these statements, the variables are 1x1 matrices with double precision
int a;
double b;
float c;
Example:
>>x=5;
>>x1=2;
Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef

7. Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef
Single Values
The value of two variables can be added together, and the result displayed…
>> A = 10
>> A + A
…or the result can be stored in another variable
>> B = A + A
The value of the variable is accessed through it’s name..... Adding A to A adds the values in the variable A (here 10) therefore the result is 20
the result can be stored in a new variable, B, which you can see now has the value 20
Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef 7 7

8. Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef
Single Values
Can not do an assignment??
>> 15 = A
Error>>>>
…or the result can be an arithmetic operation
>> A = 4 + 2
A = 6
The value of the variable is accessed through it’s name..... Adding A to A adds the values in the variable A (here 10) therefore the result is 20
the result can be stored in a new variable, B, which you can see now has the value 20
Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef 8 8

9. Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef
Single Values
If a variable in the working memory, then we Can do this:
>> A = 32
A = 32
>> A = A + 18 …
The value of the variable is accessed through it’s name..... Adding A to A adds the values in the variable A (here 10) therefore the result is 20
the result can be stored in a new variable, B, which you can see now has the value 20
Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef 9 9

10. Clear clear command will clear all variables.
clear variablename clears out a particular variable
Who will list the variables you have.

11. Number format >> format long >> 2 * sin(1.4) ans =
>> pi
>> format short
1.9709
3.1416

12. >> format loose
>> 2^7
ans =
128
>> format compact

13. Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef
Expressions in MATLAB
Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef 13

14. Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef
Expressions in MATLAB
Operators
usual set of arithmetic operators
* / ^
a few special ones, e.g., * / \
usual set of logical operators: & | ~
Functions
large library of built-in functions (e.q. sqrt, abs, sin)
e.g., >> x = sqrt(a);
Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef

15. Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef
MatLab Operators
>> 1 + 3
ans= 4
>> 3 * 4 12
>> 7 / 3
ans=
2.333
>> 7 ^ 3
343
Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef

16. assignment of variables
ans = 5
>> a*b 6
Dr. Khalid Kaabneh, Dr. Nidal Youssef

17. Relational Operators <, <=, >, >=, ==, ~=
compare corresponding elements of arrays with same dimensions
if one is scalar, one is not, the scalar is compared with each element
result is, element by element, 1 or 0

18. Relational Operators <, <=, >, >=, ==, ~=
compare corresponding elements of arrays with same dimensions
if one is scalar, one is not, the scalar is compared with each element
result is element by element 1 or 0
» a = [2 3]
a =
» b=[4,5]
b =
» a > b
ans =
» b > a
ans =
» a > 2
ans =

19. Useful built-in functions
save
rand
zeros
min
max
load
Remember to use the Matlab help command if you get stuck