Signal & System

Faculty of Engineering
Department of Electronic Engineering
Semester 2 2020/2021

Introduction to MATLAB
Instructor: Ammar Haidar
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Email: a.haidar.ust@gmail.com
 MATLAB is a program for doing numerical
computation.

 It was originally designed for solving linear

algebra type problems using matrices.

 Its name is derived from MATrix LABoratory

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 MATLAB has since been expanded and now
has built-in functions for solving problems
requiring
› data analysis,
› signal processing,
› optimization,
› and several other types of scientific computations.

 It also contains functions for 2-D and 3-D

graphics and animation.

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 Application kernel, e.g., matlab-7.7
 Computational engine
 Built-in low level algorithms (no source code)
 Includes a variety of graphical capabilities
 Suite with contemporary releases, e.g. R2008b
 Programming language
 Designed to solve problems numerically
(Particularly good for matrix operations)
 Easy to learn and use (Simplier syntax rules than
Fortran or C)
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 Auxiliaries – usually bundled with kernel
› Simulink (dynamic systems modeling)
› Stateflow (event and logic-driven modeling)

 Toolboxes - designed for specific applications

› Specialized collections of MATLAB source files
 Developed or supported by MathWorks Inc.
Signal Processing, Optimization, Control System, etc.
 Downloadable third party freeware
Multiple precision arithmetic, robotics, etc.
Resource:
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/
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 Originally written in Fortran
› Author: Cleve Moler, Univ. of New Mexico

 Mathworks, Inc. founded to further develop it.

› Incorporated in 1984
› Core is written in C
› Graphical interface is written in Java
› Runs on many platforms
 Unix – Solaris, SGI, AIX, Digital Unix
 Linux
 Windows
 Mac OS

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 MATLAB is relatively easy to learn

 MATLAB code is optimized to be relatively

quick when performing matrix operations

 MATLAB may behave like a calculator or as a

programming language

 MATLAB is interpreted, errors are easier to fix

 Although primarily procedural, MATLAB does

have some object-oriented elements
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 MATLAB is NOT a general purpose
programming language

 MATLAB is an interpreted language (making it

for the most part slower than a compiled
language such as C++)

 MATLAB is designed for scientific computation

and is not suitable for some things (such as
parsing text)
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 Command window: Type your instructions here
and press ENTER to execute them.
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 The MATLAB environment is command
oriented somewhat like UNIX.

 A prompt (>>) appears on the screen and a

MATLAB statement can be entered. When
the <ENTER> key is pressed, the statement is
executed, and another prompt appears.

 If a statement is terminated with a

semicolon ( ; ), no results will be displayed.
Otherwise results will appear before the
next prompt.
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 Example
» a=5;
» b=a/2

b=

2.5000

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 Command history: a list of instructions executed by
MATLAB is shown here.

 Workspace: shows a list of variables created by

MATLAB. As you can see, the value of ‘A’ is shown.
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 Help
› Launch Matlab Help Window
 Help > Product Help > MATLAB
› See Demos
 Help > Demos

 Or Type help at the Matlab prompt or help followed by

a function name for help on a specific function

 Online:
› Online documentation for Matlab at the MathWorks
website
http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdo
c/matlab.html
› There are also numerous tutorials online that are easily
found with a web search.

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 “%” is the neglect sign for Matlab (equaivalent
of “//” in C). Anything after it on the same line
is neglected by Matlab compiler.

 Sometimes slowing down the execution is done

deliberately for observation purposes. You can
use the command “pause” for this purpose

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 >> clear % clears all objects in
workspace
 >> clear x y % clears values of
objects x and y
 >> clc % clears command
window scroll buffer
 >> which <filename> % finds first occurrence
in search path
 >> who % lists all objects in the
workspace
 >> <command> ; % semicolon →
% execute, no display
in command window
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 >> <control> c % stops program
execution
 >> <control> q % stops execution and
exits Matlab
 >> <begin command text > … % three dots → continue
to next line
 >> whos % List known variables plus
their size
 >> help sqrt % Help on using sqrt
 >> lookfor sqrt % Search for keyword sqrt
in on MATLABPATH.
 >> what ('directory') % List MATLAB files in
directory

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 >> dir %List all files in current directory
 >> ls % Same as dir
 >> type test %Display the content of test.m
in command window
 >> delete test % Delete test.m
 >> cd a: % Change directory to a:
 >> chdir a: % Same as cd
 >> pwd % Show current directory
 >> which test % Display directory path to
‘closest’ test.m
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 Top navigation bar with pull-down menus
 File
 Edit
 Debug
 Desktop
 Window
 Help

 Toolbar with icons

 Current Directory path identified

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 File
› New (create new m-file, figure, variable)

› Import Data

› Set Path (folders, directories to search)

› Preferences > Command Window

(number format, scroll buffer size)

 Edit
› Find, Delete, Copy, Paste, etc.

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 Desktop
› Choose layout for display of windows
 Original on launch
 Desktop > Save Layout (if you like it) with a name
 Modify original if desired
 Desktop > Save Layout (if you like it) with a name
 Default layout (new in R2008b)
 You can always start over from this configuration
 Desktop > Desktop Layout > Default

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 Numerical values

› Sequence of base 10 digits

 Binary, hex representations are character strings
› Period as radix point for floating point
numbers
› Lower case e for power of 10 exponent

 Example: >> x = 123.456e-07

→ x = 0.0000123456
[ not (123.456)*(2.71828,,,)-7 ]
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 Complex numbers

› i and j initially set to the square root of -1

Imaginary part has i or j appended

(1+1i) is a single complex number

object

(1+1*i) is a sum of one and current

value of i
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 Matrices
› Rectangular arrays of elements
 Indexed by row, then by column

Example: >> A = [ a(1,1) a(1,2); a(2,1) a(2,2)]

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 Boolean logicals (Bernoulli variables)
› Truth Values
 1 for true;
 0 for false
› Primary logic symbols
 & logical AND
 == logical equal
 | logical inclusive OR
 ~ logical NOT
› Compound logic symbols
 < Less Than
 <= Less Than or Equal
 > Greater Than
 >= Greater Than or Equal
 == Equal To
 ~= Not Equal To

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 MATLAB also supports some logical
functions.
› any(x) returns 1 if any element of x is nonzero
› all(x) returns 1 if all elements of x are nonzero
› isnan(x) returns 1 at each NaN in x
› isinf(x) returns 1 at each infinity in x
› finite(x) returns 1 at each finite value in x

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 Separators and delimiters

 [] square brackets -- vector and matrix delimiters

 {} curly brackets -- cell delimiter
 () parentheses
* Grouping in compound expressions
* Vector and matrix element indices
* Function argument
 : colon -- index range separator
 ; semicolon -- matrix row separator
 <space> matrix column separator
 , comma -- matrix index, function argument
separator, row vector element separator
 '' single quotes -- demarcation of character strings

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 Data Types:

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 Have not to be previously declared type in a variable
name and type in its value.

 MATLAB will decide on the data type automatically,

so you don’t have to declare its data type.

 Variable names can contain up to 63 characters

 Variable names must start with a letter followed by

letters, digits, and underscores.

 Variable names are case sensitive

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 Example of illegal variable names:

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 Matlab Special Variables
 ans Default variable name for results
 pi Value of π
 eps Smallest incremental number
 inf Infinity
 NaN Not a number e.g. 0/0
 realmin The smallest usable positive real number
 realmax The largest usable positive real number

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 Assignment = a = b (assign b to a)

 Addition + a+b

 Subtraction - a -b

 Multiplication * or.* a*b or a.*b

 Division / or ./ a/b or a./b

 Power ^ or .^ a^b or a.^b

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 Type the following expressions into MATLAB at the
command window, and observe the results:

1. >> for = 5

2. >> else =6

3. >> cos = 3;
>> cos(0)

4. >> A = [1,2,3];
>> sum(A)
>> sum = 7;
>> sum(A)
 Type the following expressions into MATLAB at
the command window, and observe the
results:

5. >> 5>2
6. >> 5<4
7. >> 1.5<=1.5
8. >> 2>=pi
9. >> 1.8==1.801
10. >> 1.8~=2
11. >> 1.8==1.80000000000000000000000001 (see
what happen)