Introduction to MATLAB

Simon O’Keefe
Non-Standard Computation Group
sok@cs.york.ac.uk
 Content

 An introduction to MATLAB
 The MATLAB interfaces

 Variables, vectors and matrices

 Using operators

 Using Functions

 Creating Plots

2
1 Introduction to MATLAB

 What is MATLAB?
 MATLAB provides a language and environment
for numerical computation, data analysis,
visualisation and algorithm development
 MATLAB provides functions that operate on
 Integer, real and complex numbers
 Vectors and matrices
 Structures

3
1 MATLAB Functionality
 Built-in Functionality includes
 Matrix manipulation and linear algebra
 Data analysis
 Graphics and visualisation
 …and hundreds of other functions 
 Add-on toolboxes provide*
 Image processing
 Signal Processing

 Optimization

 Genetic Algorithms

…* but we have to pay for these extras 

1 MATLAB paradigm
 MATLAB is an interactive environment
 Commands are interpreted one line at a time

 Commands may be scripted to create your own functions or

procedures
 Variables are created when they are used
 Variables are typed, but variable names may be reused for
different types
 Basic data structure is the matrix
 Matrix dimensions are set dynamically

 Operations on matrices are applied to all elements of a matrix at

once
 Removes the need for looping over elements one by one!

 Makes for fast & efficient programmes

1 Starting and stopping
 To Start
 On Windows XP platform select
 Start->Programs->Maths and Stats->
MATLAB->MATLAB_local->R2007a->MATLAB R2007a
 For access to the Genetic Algorithms and Stats
toolboxes, you must use R2007b on Windows
 MATLAB runs on Linux quite happily but we do not have
toolbox licences
 To stop (nicely)
 Select File -> Exit MATLAB
 Or type quit in the MATLAB command window
1 The MATLAB interfaces

Workspace

Command Window

Command History

7
1 Window Components
 Command Prompt – MATLAB commands are entered
here.
 Workspace – Displays any variables created
(Matrices, Vectors, Singles, etc.)
 Command History - Lists all commands previously
entered.

Double clicking on a variable

in the Workspace will open an
Array Editor. This will give you
an Excel-like view of your
data.
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1 The MATLAB Interface
 Pressing the up arrow in the command window will
bring up the last command entered
 This saves you time when things go wrong
 If you want to bring up a command from some time
in the past type the first letter and press the up
arrow.
 The current working directory should be set to a
directory of your own

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2 Variables, vectors and matrices

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2.1 Creating Variables
 Variables
 Names
 Can be any string of upper and lower case letters along with
numbers and underscores but it must begin with a letter
 Reserved names are IF, WHILE, ELSE, END, SUM, etc.
 Names are case sensitive
 Value
 This is the data the is associated to the variable; the data is
accessed by using the name.
 Variables have the type of the last thing assigned to
them
 Re-assignment is done silently – there are no warnings if you
overwrite a variable with something of a different type.

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2.1 Single Values
 Singletons
 To assign a value to a variable
use the equal symbol ‘=‘
>> A = 32

 To find out the value of a variable

simply type the name in

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2.1 Single Values
 To make another variable equal to
one already entered
>> B = A

 The new variable is not updated

as you change the original value

Note: using ; suppresses output

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2.1 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
>> A = 10
>> B = A + A

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2.1 Vectors
 A vector is a list of numbers
 Use square brackets [] to contain the numbers

 To create a row vector use ‘,’ to separate the content

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2.1 Vectors
 To create a column vector use ‘;’ to separate the
content

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2.1 Vectors
 A row vector can be converted into a column vector
by using the transpose operator ‘

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2.1 Matrices
 A MATLAB matrix is a rectangular array of numbers
 Scalars and vectors are regarded as special cases of
matrices
 MATLAB allows you to work with a whole array at a time
2.1 Matrices
 You can create matrices (arrays) of any size using a
combination of the methods for creating vectors
 List the numbers using ‘,’ to separate each column
and then ‘;’ to define a new row

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2.1 Matrices
 You can also use built in functions to create a matrix
>> A = zeros(2, 4)
creates a matrix called A with 2 rows and 4 columns
containing the value 0
>> A = zeros(5) or >> A = zeros(5, 5)
creates a matrix called A with 5 rows and 5 columns

 You can also use:

>> ones(rows, columns)
>> rand(rows, columns)

Note: MATLAB always refers to the first value as the

number of Rows then the second as the number of
Columns

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2.1 Clearing Variables
 You can use the command “clear all” to delete all the
variables present in the workspace

 You can also clear specific variables using:

>> clear Variable_Name

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2.2 Accessing Matrix Elements
 An Element is a single number within a matrix or vector

 To access elements of a matrix type the matrices’ name

followed by round brackets containing a reference to the
row and column number:
>> Variable_Name(Row_Number, Column_Number)

NOTE: In Excel you reference a value by Column, Row. In

MATLAB you reference a value by Row, Column

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 2.2 Accessing Matrix Elements

1st 2nd
Excel MATLAB

2nd 1st

 To access Subject 3’s result for Test 3

 In Excel (Column, Row):
D3
 In MATLAB (Row, Column):
>> results(3, 4)

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2.2 Changing Matrix Elements

 The referenced element can also be changed

>> results(3, 4) = 10
or
>> results(3,4) = results(3,4) * 100

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2.2 Accessing Matrix Rows
 You can also access multiple values from a Matrix
using the : symbol
 To access all columns of a row enter:
>> Variable_Name(RowNumber, :)

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2.2 Accessing Matrix Columns
 To access all rows of a column
 >> Variable_Name(:, ColumnNumber)

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2.2 Changing Matrix Rows or
Columns
 These reference methods can be used to change the
values of multiple matrix elements

 To change all of the values in a row or column to

zero use
>> results(:, 3) = 0 >> results(:, 5) = results(:, 3) + results(:, 4)

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2.2 Changing Matrix Rows or
Columns
 To overwrite a row or column with new values
>> results(3, :) = [10, 1, 1, 1]
>> results(:, 3) = [1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1]

NOTE: Unless you are overwriting with a single value the data entered
must be of the same size as the matrix part to be overwritten.

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2.2 Accessing Multiple Rows,
Columns
 To access consecutive Rows or
Columns use : with start and
end points:

 Multiple Rows:
>> Variable_Name(start:end, :)

 Multiple Columns:
>> Variable_Name(:, start:end)

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2.2 Accessing Multiple Rows,
Columns
 To access multiple non consecutive
Rows or Columns use a vector of
indexes (using square brackets [])

 Multiple Rows:
>>Variable_Name([index1, index2, etc.], :)

 Multiple Columns:
>>Variable_Name(:, [index1, index2, etc.])

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2.2 Changing Multiple Rows,
Columns
 The same referencing can be used to change
multiple Rows or Columns

>> results([3,6], :) = 0 >> results(3:6, :) = 0

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2.3 Copying Data from Excel
 MATLAB’s Array Editor allows you to copy data from
an Excel spreadsheet in a very simple way

 In Excel select the data and click on copy

 Double click on the variable you would like to store the data
in
 This will open the array editor

 In the Array Editor right click in the first element and select
“Paste Excel Data”

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2.3 Copying Data from Excel

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2.4 The colon operator
 The colon : is actually an operator, that generates a row
vector
 This row vector may be treated as a set of indices when
accessing a elements of a matrix
 The more general form is
 [start:stepsize:end]
>> [11:2:21]
11 13 15 17 19 21
>>
 Stepsize does not have to be integer (or positive)
>> [22:-2.07:11]
22.00 19.93 17.86 15.79 13.72 11.65
>>
2.4 Concatenation
 The square brackets [] are the concatenation
operator.
 So far, we have concatenated single elements to
form a vector or matrix.
 The operator is more general than that – for
example we can concatenate matrices (with the
same dimension) to form a larger matrix
2.4 Saving and Loading Data
 Variables that are currently in the workspace can be
saved and loaded using the save and load commands

 MATLAB will save the file in the Current Directory

 To save the variables use

>> save File_Name [variable variable …]

 To load the variables use

>> load File_Name [variable variable …]

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3 More Operators

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3.1 Mathematical Operators
 Mathematical Operators:
 Add: +
 Subtract: -
 Divide: ./
 Multiply: .*
 Power: .^ (e.g. .^2 means squared)

 You can use round brackets to specify the order in

which operations will be performed
 Note that preceding the symbol / or * or ^ by a ‘.’
means that the operator is applied between pairs of
corresponding elements of vectors of matrices

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3.1 Mathematical Operators
 Simple mathematical operations are easy in MATLAB

 The command structure is:

>> Result_Variable =
Variable_Name1 operator
Variable_Name2

 E.g. To add two numbers together:

Excel: MATLAB:
>> C = A + B
>> C = (A + 10) ./ 2

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3.1 Mathematical Operators
 You can apply single values to an entire matrix
E.g.
>> data = rand(5,1)
>> A = 10
>> results = data + A

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3.1 Mathematical Operators
 Or, if two matrices/vectors are the same size, you
can perform these operations between them
>> results = [1:5]’
>> results2 = rand(5,1)
>> results3 = results + results2

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3.1 Mathematical Operators
 Combining this with methods from Accessing Matrix Elements
gives way to more useful operations
>> results = zeros(3, 5)
>> results(:, 1:4) = rand(3, 4)
>> results(:, 5) = results(:, 1) + results(:, 2) + results(:, 3) + results(:, 4)
or
>> results(:, 5) = results(:, 1) .* results(:, 2) .* results(:, 3) .* results(:, 4)

NOTE: There is a simpler way to do this using the Sum and Prod
functions, this will be shown later.

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3.1 Mathematical Operators
>> results = zeros(3, 5)
>> results(:, 1:4) = rand(3, 4)
>> results(:, 5) = results(:, 1) + results(:, 2) + results(:, 3) + results(:, 4)

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3.1 Mathematical Operators
 You can perform operations on a matrix - you are
very likely to use these
 Matrix Operators:
 Matrix Multiply: *
 Matrix Right Division: /

 Example:

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3.1 Operation on matrices
 Multiplication of matrices with * calculates inner
products between rows and columns
 To transpose a matrix, use ‘
 det(A) calculates the determinant of a matrix A
 inv(A) calculates the inverse of a matrix A
 pinv(A) calculates the pseudo-inverse of A
 …and so on
3.2 Logical Operators

You can use Logical Indexing to find data that

conforms to some limitations

Logical Operators:
 Greater Than: >
 Less Than: <
 Greater Than or Equal To: >=
 Less Than or Equal To: <=
 Is Equal: ==
 Not Equal To: ~=

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3.2 Logical Indexing
 For example, you can find data that is above a
certain limit:
>> r = results(:,1)
>> ind = r > 0.2
>> r(ind)

 ind is the same size as r and contains zeros (false) where the
data does not fit the criteria and ones (true) where it does, this
is called a Logical Vector.

 r(ind) then extracts the data where ones exist in ind

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3.2 Logical Indexing

>> r = results(:,1)
>> ind = r > 0.2
>> r(ind)

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3.3 Boolean Operators
 Boolean Operators:
 AND: &
 OR: |
 NOT: ~

 Connects two logical expressions together

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3.3 Boolean Operators
 Using a combination of Logical and Boolean
operators we can select values that fall within a
lower and upper limit
>> r = results(:,1)
>> ind = r > 0.2 & r <= 0.9
>> r(ind)

 More later...

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4 Functions

51
4 Functions
 A function performs an operation on the input
variable you pass to it

 Passing variables is easy, you just list them within

round brackets when you call the function
 function_Name(input)

 You can also pass the function parts of a matrix

>> function_Name(matrix(:, 1))
or
>> function_Name(matrix(:, 2:4))

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4 Functions
 The result of the function can be stored in a variable
>> output_Variable = function_Name(input)
e.g.
>> mresult = mean(results)

 You can also tell the function to store the result in parts of
a matrix
>> matrix(:, 5) = function_Name(matrix(:, 1:4))

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4 Functions
 To get help with using a function enter
>> help function_Name

 This will display information on how to use the

function and what it does

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4 Functions
 MATLAB has many built in functions which make it easy to perform a
variety of statistical operations
 sum – Sums the content of the variable passed

 prod – Multiplies the content of the variable passed

 mean – Calculates the mean of the variable passed

 median – Calculates the median of the variable passed

 mode – Calculates the Mode of the variable passed

 std – Calculates the standard deviation of the variable passed

 sqrt – Calculates the square root of the variable passed

 max – Finds the maximum of the data

 min – Finds the minimum of the data

 size – Gives the size of the variable passed

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4 Special functions
 There are a number of special functions that provide
useful constants
 pi = 3.14159265….
 i or j = square root of -1
 Inf = infinity
 NaN = not a number
4 Functions
 Passing a vector to a function like sum, mean, std
will calculate the property within the vector
>> sum([1,2,3,4,5])
= 15

>> mean([1,2,3,4,5])
=3

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4 Functions
 When passing matrices the property, by default, will
be calculated over the columns

58
4 Functions
 To change the direction of the calculation to the
other dimension (columns) use:
>> function_Name(input, 2)

 When using std, max and min you need to write:

>> function_Name(input, [], 2)

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4 Functions
 From Earlier
>> results(:, 5) = results(:, 1) + results(:, 2) + results(:, 3) + results(:, 4)
or
>> results(:, 5) = results(:, 1) .* results(:, 2) .* results(:, 3) .* results(:, 4)

 Can now be written

>> results(:, 5) = sum(results(:, 1:4), 2)
or
>> results(:, 5) = prod(results(:, 1:4), 2)

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4 Functions
 More usefully you
can now take the
mean and standard
deviation of the
data, and add them
to the array

61
4 Functions
 You can find the maximum and minimum of some
data using the max and min functions
>> max(results)
>> min(results)

62
4 Functions
 We can use functions and logical indexing to extract all the
results for a subject that fall between 2 standard deviations of
the mean
>> r = results(:,1)
>> ind = (r > mean(r) – 2*std(r)) & (r < mean(r) + 2*std(r))
>> r(ind)

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5 Plotting

64
5 Plotting
 The plot function can be used in different ways:
>> plot(data)
>> plot(x, y)
>> plot(data, ‘r.-’)

 In the last example the line style is defined

Colour: r, b, g, c, k, y etc.
Point style: . + * x o > etc.
Line style: - -- : .-
 Type ‘help plot’ for a full list of the options

65
5 Plotting
 A basic plot
1
>> x = [0:0.1:2*pi]
0.8

>> y = sin(x) 0.6

>> plot(x, y, ‘r.-’) 0.4

0.2

-0.2

-0.4

-0.6

-0.8

-1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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5 Plotting
 Plotting a matrix
 MATLAB will treat each column as a different set of data
0.9

0.8

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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5 Plotting
 Some other functions that are helpful to create plots:

 hold on and hold off

 title
 legend
 axis
 xlabel
 ylabel

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5 Plotting
>> x = [0:0.1:2*pi];
Sin Plots
>> y = sin(x); 2
sin(x)
>> plot(x, y, 'b*-') 1.5 2*sin(x)

>> hold on 1

>> plot(x, y*2, ‘r.-') 0.5

>> title('Sin Plots'); 0

y

>> legend('sin(x)', '2*sin(x)'); -0.5

>> axis([0 6.2 -2 2])

-1

>> xlabel(‘x’);
-1.5

>> ylabel(‘y’);
-2
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
>> hold off x

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5 Plotting
 Plotting data
0.9

0.8

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

>> results = rand(10, 3)

0.3
>> plot(results, 'b*')
>> hold on 0.2

>> plot(mean(results, 2), ‘r.-’) 0.1

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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5 Plotting
Error bar plot
>> errorbar(mean(data, 2), std(data, [], 2))

Mean test results with error bars

1

0.9

0.8

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1
0 2 4 6 8 10 12

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5 Plotting
 You can close all the current plots using ‘close all’

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6 Save & load

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