Lecture 2

Arrays
Tan Do
Vietnamese-German University
Lecture 2
Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 1 / 43

Content
In this lecture
Array denition, array classes and data types

Variable editor
Element-by-element operations on arrays
Vector operations: scaling, dot product, cross product
Matrix multiplication
Some special matrices
Character array.
sprintf command and script le.

Denition
Denition
An array is a list of items arranged in rows and/or columns.

For examples,
" #
h i 23 4 9
1 3 −1 4 19 0.5 π and are arrays of numbers.
2 0 2
2 Alex is an array of characters (called a string).
 
Alex 4912
3  Bob 4879 is a mixed array of numbers and characters.
 
Charlie 5120
Arrays play fundamental role in MATLAB.
Every information and data are represented as arrays in MATLAB.

Vectors
Row vector
A one-dimensional array is called a vector.
5 9 0 is a row vector.
h i
In MATLAB, type
» [5 9 0]
ans =
5 9 0
Commas are used to improve readability.
» [5, 9, 0]
ans =
5 9 0

Vectors
 
1
−4 is a column vector.
 
 
7
In MATLAB, type
» [1; -4; 7]
ans =
1
-4
7
Note that semicolons are used in the above command.

You can also type
» [1 -4 7]’ or » [1, -4, 7]’
to get the same result. ' is called the transpose operator.
Matrices
Matrices
A two-dimensional array is called a matrix.

" #
1 2
is a 2 × 2 (square) matrix.
3 4
In MATLAB, type
» [1 2; 3 4]
ans =
1 2
3 4

Matrices
" #
−3 4 6
is a 2 × 3 matrix.
7 1 0
 
−2 8
 is a 3 × 2 matrix.
 
0 1
 
9 37
Generally, a table of numbers with m rows and n columns is called an
m × n matrix.
 
a11 a12 a13 ... a1n
 
 a21 a22 a23 . . . a2n 
 
a
 31 a32 a33 . . . a3n 

 . .. .. .. 
 .
 . . . . 

am1 am2 am3 . . . amn

An m × n matrix
Arrays of higher dimensions
Multidimensional arrays
The idea above can be extended to dene arrays of higher dimensions

called multidimensional arrays.
For example, we can think of a three-dimensional array as a stack of several
layers of matrices with dimension m × n × p.
Here m is the number of rows, n the number of columns as with a matrix.
The higher dimension p is the number of layers of matrices.
A multidimensional array
Classication
Array classes
So far we have discussed arrays involving numbers only. These are called
numeric arrays.
More classes of arrays are available in MATLAB:
1 Numeric arrays: Items are numbers.

2 Character arrays: Items are strings of alphabets.
3 Logical arrays: Items are TRUE or FALSE values (logical values).
4 Structure arrays
5 Cell arrays
6 Function handles
7 Java arrays
In this course, we will cover arrays of types [1], [2] and [6].
Numeric arrays
Numeric arrays
A numeric array is an array whose elements are numbers.
In MATLAB there are several types of numbers.
single single-precision real number (oating point),
occupies 32 bits in computer memory
double double-precision real number (oating point),
occupies 64 bits in computer memory
int8, uint8 signed and unsigned 8-bit integer respectively
int16, uint16 signed and unsigned 16-bit integer respectively
...
The default numeric type in MATLAB is double.
It is possible to change from one numeric type to another. But this is not
advisable, unless you are told to do so.
Numeric arrays
More ways of creating vectors

Previously we discussed some basic ways of creating vectors.
Here we mention some more.
To create a vector with regularly spaced elements, the syntax is

» v = a:s:b
This will create a vector v with spacing s (also called step size).
The rst value is a and
(
b if b − a is a multiple of s,
the last value =
less than b otherwise.
If we type
» v = a:b
then the step size s is set to 1.
Numeric arrays
Example
» 0:2:10
ans =
0 2 4 6 8 10
» 0:2:9
ans =
0 2 4 6 8
» 1:0.2:2
ans =
1.0000 1.2000 1.4000 1.6000 1.8000 2.0000
» -3:2
ans =
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2
Numeric arrays
» 6:-2:1
ans =
6 4 2
The linspace command also creates a vector of regularly spacing

elements. But the syntax is a little dierent.
» linspace(a, b, n)
where a is the initial value, b the nal value and n the number of points.
Example
» linspace(1, 2, 6)
ans =
1.0000 1.2000 1.4000 1.6000 1.8000 2.0000
If n is omitted, the spacing is 1.

Numeric arrays
Appending vectors
We can append one vector to another.
Example
» a = [1 2 3]; b = [4 5 6];
» v = [a, b]
ans =
1 2 3 4 5 6
M = [a; b]
ans =
1 2 3
4 5 6
Note the eect of the comma and the semicolon in the above example.
Numeric arrays
Magnitude, length and absolute value of a vector

Let v = (v1 , v2 , . . . , vn ) be a vector.
The magnitude of v is dened to be v12 + v22 + . . . + vn2 .

p
In MATLAB, the command is

» norm(v)
The length of v is the number of elements in v , i.e., n.

In MATLAB, type
» length(v)
The absolute value of v is a vector of the same length whose elements are
absolute values of elements in v correspondingly.
In MATLAB, type
» abs(v)
Numeric arrays
Example
» v = [1, 0 , -1, -5]
v =
1 0 -1 -5
» norm(v)
ans =
5.1962
» length(v)
ans =
4
» abs(v)
ans =
1 0 1 5
Numeric arrays
Matrices and the transpose operator
Let M be an m × n matrix.
The transpose M T of M is an n × m matrix whose rows are the columns
of M correspondingly.  
" # 1 0
1 −1 8
For example, if M = , then M T =  .
 
−1 4
0 4 −2  
8 −2
In MATLAB, type
» M = [1, -1, 8; 0, 4, -2]
M =
1 -1 8
0 4 -2

Numeric arrays
» M’
ans =
1 0
-1 4
8 -2
Recall ' is called the transpose operator.
Note that a row vector of length n can be considered as a 1 × n matrix.
Similarly, a column vector of length n can be considered as a n × 1 matrix.

Numeric arrays
Array addressing
To address an element of a vector, we use the position of that element in

the vector.
For example, if v = [1, −2, 3, 7], then
v1 = 1, v2 = −2, v3 = 3 and v4 = 7.
In MATLAB, type
» v = [1, -2, 3, 7];
v(4)
ans =
7

Numeric arrays
To get a range of elements, type

» v(2:4)
ans =
-2 3 7
which gives the elements from the second to the fourth position of v .

Numeric arrays
To address an element of a matrix, row and column numbers are used.

These are called indices of that element.
" #
1 −1
For example, if M = , then
0 9
M11 = 1, M12 = −1, M21 = 0 and M22 = 9.
Note the way we index the elements of M : the rst index is the row
number and the second index is the column number.
In MATLAB, type
» M = [1, -1; 0, 9];
» M(1,2)
ans =
-1
Numeric arrays
Next suppose that M is a 4 × 5 matrix. Then
M(:,2) gives the second column of M .
M(2,:) gives the second row of M .
M(:,2:5) gives the columns of M from position 2 to 5.
M(2:3,3:5) gives all elements Mij with 2 ≤ i ≤ 3 and 3 ≤ j ≤ 5.
M(:) stacks all columns of M into one single column vector.
M(end,:) gives the last row in M and M(:,end) gives the last
column in M .

Numeric arrays
Empty array
An empty array contains no element in it.

To obtain an empty array in MATLAB, type
» []
ans =
[]
We can delete rows and columns in a matrix M using the empty array.
Example
M(:,2) = [] deletes column 2.
M(:,3:5) = [] deletes columns from position 3 to 5.
M(:,[1, 3, 5]) = [] deletes columns in positions 1, 3 and 5.
Numeric arrays
" #
1 7 3
Suppose M = .
5 9 6
Then typing
» M(4,2) = 21
results in
ans =
1 7 3
5 9 6
0 0 0
0 21 0
i.e., MATLAB expands the size of M and adds zeros to ll out the
remaining elements.

Numeric arrays
Useful array functions

Function Description
length(A) returns number of elements if A is a vector
returns max{m, n} if A is an m × n matrix
max(A) Vector: returns the largest element
Matrix: returns a row vector of largest element in each column of A
min(A) same as max(A) but returns smallest values instead
sort(A) Vector: sorts elements of A in ascending order
Matrix: sorts elements of each column of A in ascending order
sum(A) Vector: sums all elements of A and returns a number
Matrix: sums all elements in each column of A and
returns a vector of these sums in corresponding order
size(A) returns the vector [m n] of the array A of size m × n
find(A) returns a column vector of the indices of non-zero elements in A
Numeric arrays
Some variants of the above functions are

Function Description
[x,k] = max(A) same as max(A) but stores max values in vector x
and corresponding row indices in vector k
[x,k] = min(A) same as [x,k] = max(A), returns min values instead
sort(A,’descend’) sorts A in descending order
sort(A,dim,mode) the general syntax for sort command
dim stands for dimension along which to sort,
1 along row and 2 along column
mode is either 'ascending' (by default) or 'descending'
[u,v,w] = find(A) returns w containing non-zero elements of A,
u containing row indices of the non-zero elements,
v containing column indices of the non-zero elements

Element-by-element operations
Element-by-element operations
Symbol Operation Form Example

+ Scalar array addition A+b [1,5] + 3 = [4,8]
Array addition A+B [-1,0] + [4,8] = [3,8]
Scalar array subtraction A-b [1,5] 3 = [-2,2]
Array subtraction A-B [-1,0] [4,8] = [-5,-8]
.* Array multiplication A.*B [5,2] .* [7,3] = [35,6]
./ Array right division A./B [5,2] ./ [7,3] = [5/7,2/3]
.\ Array left division A .\B [5,2] .\ [7,3] = [5\7,2\3]
.b Array exponentiation A.bB [3,5].b2 = [32 , 52 ]
2.b[3,5] = [23 , 25 ]
[3,5].b[2,4] = [32 , 54 ]

Matrix operations
Vector scaling
To change the magnitude of a vector, we multiply it by a scalar.
In MATLAB, type
» u = [5, -3, 7];
» 4*u
ans =
20 -12 28
The same idea is also applied to matrices. For example,
» M = [2, 3; 5, -1];
» 2*M
ans =
4 6
10 -2
Matrix operations
Dot product
The dot product of two vectors u = [u1 , u2 , . . . , un ] and

v = [v1 , v2 , . . . , vn ] is dened by
u · v = u1 v1 + u2 v2 + . . . + un vn .
MATLAB syntax for dot product is dot(u,v).
Example
» u = [1,2,3]; v = [5,2,0];
» dot(u,v)
ans =
9

Matrix operations
Cross product
The cross product of two vectors u = [u1 , u2 , u3 ] and v = [v1 , v2 , v3 ] is

another vector w in such a way that w is perpendicular to both u and v
whose direction follows the right-hand rule.
In notation w = u × v .
Algebraically
u × v = [u2 v3 − u3 u2 , u3 v1 − u1 v3 , u1 v2 − u2 v1 ].
(a) Cross product (b) Right-hand rule

Matrix operations
MATLAB syntax for cross product is cross(u,v).
Example
» u = [1,2,3]; v = [5,2,0];
» cross(u,v)
ans =
-6 15 -8
Note that cross product is only dened for vectors in 3 dimensions.

Matrix operations
Matrix multiplication
Next we will dene the multiplication of two matrices A and B .
First we dene the multiplication of a row vector by a column vector.

 
v1
 
 v2 
[u1 , u2 , . . . , un ] ∗  .  = u1 v1 + u2 v2 + . . . + u3 v3 .
 
 .. 
 
vn
Note the similarity between this and the dot product.

Matrix operations
Let A be an m × n matrix and B an n × r matrix.

Note that the number of column of A is the same as the number of row of
B.
Dene M = [mij ] = A ∗ B , where
mij = i-th row of A ∗ j-th column of B.
Example
 
" # 3 0 " #
1 2 3   2 33
∗ −2 9 = .
4 5 6   8 75
2×3 1 5 2×2
3×2
" # " #
1 h i 7 3
∗ 7 3 = .
2 1×2 14 6
2×1 2×2

Matrix operations
In MATLAB, type
» A = [1, 2, 3; 4, 5, 6]; B = [3, 0; -2, 9; 1, 5];
» A*B
ans =
2 33
8 75
» u = [1, 2]; v = [7; 3];
» u*v
ans =
7 3
14 6

Matrix operations
Special matrices
The zero matrix has all entries equal to 0. We denote the zero matrix by 0.
For example,
 
" # " # 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0
, , 0 0 0 , ...
 
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0
are zero matrices.

The identity matrix is a square matrix which has 1's along the diagonal and
all 0's elsewhere. We denote the identity matrix by I.
For example,  
" # 1 0 0
1 0
, 0 1 0 , ...
 
0 1
0 0 1
are identity matrices.
Matrix operations
The zero and identity matrices have the following properties.
0A = A0 = 0, IA = AI = A
for all square matrix A.

More special matrices are also available in MATLAB.
Command Description
eye(n) creates an n × n identity matrix
zeros(n) creates an n × n zero matrix
zeros(m,n) creates an m × n zero matrix
zeros(size(A)) creates a zero matrix the same size as matrix A
ones(n) creates an n × n matrix whose entries are all 1's
ones(m,n) creates an m × n matrix whose entries are all 1's
ones(size(A)) creates a matrix of 1's the same size as matrix A

char arrays
Character encoding
Characters include letters of the alphabet, digits, punctuation marks,

white space and control characters.
White space characters include the space, tab, etc.

Control characters include are characters that cannot be printed, but
accomplish a task (e.g., a backspace or enter)
A character in MATLAB is represented using single quotes.
Example 'a' and '3' are characters.
The single quotes are essential to denote a character. Without them,

a letter is interpreted as variable name by MATLAB.
char arrays
Characters are stored in MATLAB using the so-called character

encoding.
In the character encoding, all characters are put in a sequence with
equivalent integer values.
Specically, MATLAB uses ASCII encoding (American Standard Code

for Information Interchange).
Standard ASCII has 128 characters with equivalent integers from 0 to

127.
The rst 32 characters are non-printable characters. Letters of the
alphabet are put in dictionary order.

char arrays
Converting characters to equivalent integers
To convert a character, for example 'a', to its equivalent integer, type

» double(’a’)
ans =
97
which shows that 'a' is the 98th character in the character encoding.
The number type is not important, so it is also possible to type

» int32(’a’)
ans =
97
The function char reverses the process.

» char(97)
ans =
a

char arrays
Note the dierence when MATLAB displays a number versus a character.

» var = 3
var =
3
» var = ’3’
var =
3

char arrays
char arrays
Denition A sequence of characters is called a char array or a string.
Example 'America', 'New Zealand' are strings.
We can concatenate strings together.

s1 = ’New’; s2 = ’Zealand’;
s3 = [s1, ’ ’, s2]
s3 =
New Zealand
An empty string can be created by putting two single quotes together (with no spacing
in between).
s = ”;
c = class(s)
c =
char

char arrays
To nd the equivalent integers of the characters in a string, type

» double(’America’)
ans =
65 109 101 114 105 99 97
MATLAB handles strings similarly to numeric arrays. So to get the

substring 'meri' of the string 'America', we can type
» s = ’America’;
» substr = s(2:5)
substr =
meri

char arrays
sprintf function
A very useful function in MATLAB is sprintf.

The sprintf function writes new data to a preformatted string.
Example
» Intro = sprintf(’Hello! My name is %s.’, ’Tan’)
Intro =
Hello! My name is Tan.
» s = sprintf(’This %s class has roughly %d students.’, ’IT’, 50)

s =
This IT class has roughly 50 students.
» p = sprintf(’An approximation of %s is %f.’, ’pi’, 3.14)

p =
An approximation of pi is 3.14.

Lecture 2

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Arrays

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 1 / 43

Array denition, array classes and data types

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 2 / 43

An array is a list of items arranged in rows and/or columns.

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 3 / 43

A one-dimensional array is called a vector.

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 4 / 43

Note that semicolons are used in the above command.

A two-dimensional array is called a matrix.

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 6 / 43

am1 am2 am3 . . . amn

The idea above can be extended to dene arrays of higher dimensions

1 Numeric arrays: Items are numbers.

More ways of creating vectors

To create a vector with regularly spaced elements, the syntax is

The linspace command also creates a vector of regularly spacing

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 13 / 43

Magnitude, length and absolute value of a vector

The magnitude of v is dened to be v12 + v22 + . . . + vn2 .

In MATLAB, the command is

The length of v is the number of elements in v , i.e., n.

Matrices and the transpose operator

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 17 / 43

Note that a row vector of length n can be considered as a 1 × n matrix.

Similarly, a column vector of length n can be considered as a n × 1 matrix.

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 18 / 43

To address an element of a vector, we use the position of that element in

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 19 / 43

To get a range of elements, type

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 20 / 43

To address an element of a matrix, row and column numbers are used.

M11 = 1, M12 = −1, M21 = 0 and M22 = 9.

Next suppose that M is a 4 × 5 matrix. Then

M(:,2) gives the second column of M .

M(2,:) gives the second row of M .

M(:,2:5) gives the columns of M from position 2 to 5.

M(2:3,3:5) gives all elements Mij with 2 ≤ i ≤ 3 and 3 ≤ j ≤ 5.

M(:) stacks all columns of M into one single column vector.

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 22 / 43

An empty array contains no element in it.

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 24 / 43

Useful array functions

Some variants of the above functions are

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 26 / 43

Symbol Operation Form Example

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 27 / 43

The dot product of two vectors u = [u1 , u2 , . . . , un ] and

MATLAB syntax for dot product is dot(u,v).

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 29 / 43

The cross product of two vectors u = [u1 , u2 , u3 ] and v = [v1 , v2 , v3 ] is

(a) Cross product (b) Right-hand rule

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 30 / 43

MATLAB syntax for cross product is cross(u,v).

Note that cross product is only dened for vectors in 3 dimensions.

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 31 / 43

Next we will dene the multiplication of two matrices A and B .

First we dene the multiplication of a row vector by a column vector.

Note the similarity between this and the dot product.

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 32 / 43

Let A be an m × n matrix and B an n × r matrix.

mij = i-th row of A ∗ j-th column of B.

Tan Do (VGU) Introduction to MATLAB Lecture 2 33 / 43

Array denition, array classes and data types

The idea above can be extended to dene arrays of higher dimensions

The magnitude of v is dened to be v12 + v22 + . . . + vn2 .

Note that cross product is only dened for vectors in 3 dimensions.

Next we will dene the multiplication of two matrices A and B .

First we dene the multiplication of a row vector by a column vector.

Specically, MATLAB uses ASCII encoding (American Standard Code

Note the dierence when MATLAB displays a number versus a character.

To nd the equivalent integers of the characters in a string, type