Vectors and Matrices

• In MATLAB a vector can be defined as row vector or as a column

vector.
• A vector of length n can be visualized as matrix of size 1xn or nx1.
Vectors and Matrices
• Matrices can be of different sizes, either square matrices of size NxN or
rectangular NxM.
• Note that vectors are special case of matrices.
Some Special Vectors and
Matrices
Matrix Calculations
Addition

Multiplication

Inverse
Solving Simultaneous Equations
Ax=b
A=matrix of coefficients,
x = vector of variables,
b = vector of values.

In matrix form the above system and its solution can be written
as

In MATLAB we write as x = inv(A)*b

Loops
Two different types of loops exist in
MATLAB.
 for and
 while
Their structure is as shown here
for loop
A simple for loop to calculate and
display squares of numbers from 1 to 5.
for loop (contd.)
We can write the same for loop with
some change. Now we are saving the
results in a vector named ‘result’.
Note that the squared values will
be saved in the ‘result’ vector.
The vector must be initialized
before assigning any value to it.
Note that this is the case for
vectors and matrices only.
We don’t need to initialize
scalars in MATLAB.
for loop (contd.)
The control index of the for loop shown in the
previous slides was incremented by ‘1’. We can
increment the control index by any arbitrary value as
required.
In the following example odd numbers from 1 to 9
are printed.
while loop
While loop continue to execute if the given
condition is true.
A condition is true if it is not equal to ‘0’.
A simple while loop to display numbers from
1 to 10 is shown here.

In this while loop at each iteration

the value of ‘i’ is incremented
after the value is printed.
Logical Operators
AND, OR, and INVERT logical operations
can be performed in MATLAB.
The symbols used for these operators
are ‘&&’ , ‘||’, and ‘~’ respectively for
AND, OR, and INVERT.
A logical operation always results in a
‘1’ or ‘0’.
Some more logical operators
Other logical operators in MATLAB include
< Less than

> Greater than

== Equal to

<= Less than or equal to

>= Greater than or equal to

~= Not equal to
Note that the results of these operations are
also either ‘1’ or ‘0’.
Examples: logical operations
Lets say, a=1, b=2, and c=1. Then,
A<b results in TRUE I.e. ‘1’
A>b results in FALSE I.e. ‘0’
A==b results in FALSE I.e. ‘0’
A==c results in TRUE I.e. ‘1’
A==c && a<=b results in ‘1’.

Several examples can be used to show the

usage of these operators.
while loop revisited
Now we can show the usage of these logical
operations in the while loop as condition.
Say a=1, then the following code results in
the execution of loop until the condition a<b
gets FALSE.
if statement
if statement checks whether the condition
given to it is TRUE or FALSE.

If the condition evaluates to TRUE the

<statements> are executed otherwise not.
Unlike the for and while loops the
<statements> inside the if statement are
executed only once.
if-else statement
If-else is used if we want to perform
two different tasks depending upon the
condition is TRUE or FALSE.
We wish to use “if” and “else” statement to
decide upon if the input integer is an odd or an
even number. The Matlab code for the purpose
is shown below:
Functions in Matlab
Functions are actually computer
routines(programs) to perform specific
task.
Matlab is rich in built-in function
A function is called, user gives specific
input(s) to the function, which
generates the required output(s).
Example of built-in functions
Our objective is to
calculate mean or
average of certain
vector ‘x’.
We call the built in
function “mean” of
Matlab and give ‘x’
as an input to the
function.
The mean is
calculated and is
stored in variable ‘y’.
We can also built our own functions and call
them when required.
The functions are the m-files.
For example for a given quadratic equation
we wish to calculate the roots of equation. So
we build our own function “call” and use the
quadratic formula to solve for x1 and x2.
In our main program the function is called
and the inputs ‘a’, ‘b’ and ‘c’ are given to the
function which calculates the required roots
Plotting in Matlab
Matlab uses “plot” command to plot the
curves with different line style and
colors
Example follows:
Thank You