THE CHEAT SHEET

SCIENCE
PROGRAMMING
ACADEMY WITH MATLAB
MATLAB (MATrix LABoratory) is a high-performance language for technical computing.
It integrates computation, visualization, and programming in an easy-to-use environment
where problems and solutions are expressed in familiar mathematical notation.

Small variables like x and y will be either row or column vectors and A will always be a matrix.

BASIC COMMANDS MANIPULATION OF VARIABLES

clc Clear command window a = 500 Define variable a to be 500
clear (all) Clear all variables x = [3, 1, 4] Set x to be the row vector [3, 1, 4]
close all Close all plots x = [3; 1; 4] Set x to be the column vector [3, 1, 4]T
clf Clear all plots A = [3, 1, 4, 1;
doc command Extensive help page for command 5, 9, 2, 6; Set A to be a 3 × 4 matrix
help command Quick help page for command 5, 3, 5, 8]
x(2) = 7 Change x from [3, 1, 4] to [3, 7, 4]
%This is a comment Indicates a comment
A(2,1) = 0 Change A(2,1) from 5 to 0
a = 5; Semicolon suppresses output
whos Lists all variables defined
disp('text') Print text BASIC ARITHMETIC & FUNCTIONS
save 'file.mat' save 'file.mat' 1*2, 3+4, 5-6, 7/8 Multiply, add, subtract and divide
load 'file.mat' Load variables from file.mat 28
^
Compute 28
diary on Record input/output to file diary sqrt(16) Compute √16
log(5) Compute ln(5)
ENTRIES OF MATRICES & VECTORS log10(100) Compute log10(100)
abs(-10) Compute | − 10|
abs(x) The absolute value of x
sin(2*pi/6) Compute sin(2π/6)
eps Floating point accuracy
ceil(3.8) Outputs 4.0
1e6 106
floor(3.8) Outputs 3.0
sum(x) Sums elements in x
round Rounds to the nearest integer
CELL MANIPULATION
Rounds to nearest integer greater than or
ceil equal to that element
x = cell(a, b) a x b cell array
fix Rounds to the nearest integer toward zero x{n,m} Access cell element n,m
floor Rounds to the nearest integer less than or cell2mat(x) Transforms cells to matrix
equal to that element

OPERATIONS ON MATRICES & VECTORS

CONSTRUCT MATRICES & VECTORS x+5 Add 5 to every element of x

zeros(5, 5) Create a 5 × 5 matrix of zeros (Pre-Allocation) x+y Elementwise addition of two vectors x and y

ones(6, 7) Create a 6 × 7 matrix of ones 10 * x Multiply every element of x by 10

eye(3) Create a 3 × 3 identity matrix A*y Product of a matrix and vector

eye(9, 10) Make a 9 × 10 identity matrix A*B Product of two matrices

Element-wise product of two matrices
linspace Generates N points between X and Y A .* B (Important if matrices are not quadratic)
(X, Y, N)
A^4 Square matrix A to the fourth power
logspace Creates a vector with N1 elements
(X1, Y1, N1) where the log of the spacing is evenly A .^ 4 Every element of A to the fourth power
increasing between X1 and Y1 cos(A) Compute the cosine of every element of A
1:99 Row vector of 1, 2, . . . , 88, 99 Compute the absolute values of every
abs(A)
element of A
A' Transpose of A
det(A) Compute the determinant of A
size(A) Get the size of A

This summary sheet is part of a course offered at the Science

The Science Academy Academy covering various science & engineering topics.
courses.jousefmurad.com For more information, please visit courses.jousefmurad.com
 THE CHEAT SHEET

SCIENCE
PROGRAMMING
ACADEMY WITH MATLAB
MATLAB (MATrix LABoratory) is a high-performance language for technical computing.
It integrates computation, visualization, and programming in an easy-to-use environment
where problems and solutions are expressed in familiar mathematical notation.

Small variables like x and y will be either row or column vectors and A will always be a matrix.

PLOTTING CONSTANTS
plot(x,y) Plot y versus x (same dimension!) pi π = 3.1415926533
loglog(x,y) Plot y versus x on a log-log Inf Infinity
scale (both axes have a log NaN Not a number (i.e. 0/0)
scale)
realmax Largest positive floating-point
semilogx(x, y) Plot y versus x with x on a number 1.7977 · 10308
log scale
realmin Smallest positive floating-point
semilogy(x, y) Plot y versus x with y on a number 2.2251·10−308
log scale
axis equal Force the x and y axes to be
scaled equally DEBUGGING
title('A Title') Add a title to the plot
tic Starts timer
xlabel('x text') Add a label to the x axis
toc Stops timer
ylabel('y text') Add a label to the y axis
try/catch Good to track errors
legend('foo', 'bar') Label 2 curves for the plot
dbclear Clears breakpoints
grid on/off Add a grid to the plot
break Terminates execution of for/while loop
figure Start a new plot
figure(i) ith figure
subplot(a,b,c) For multiple figures in one DATA IMPORT & EXPORT
plot
hold on Retains current figure when xlsread/xlswrite Spreadsheets (.xls,.xlsm)
adding new stuf load/save -ascii Text files (txt,csv)
hold off Default settings (no hold load/save Matlab Files (.m)
on!)
imread/imwrite Image Files
set(fig1, ’LineStyle’, ’-’) Change dot marker
set(fig1, ’Marker’, ’.’) Change marker type SOLVING LINEAR EQUATIONS
set(fig1, ’MarkerSize’, 10) Change marker size
set(fig1, ’FontSize’, 14) Change font size inv(A) Compute the inverse A−1
eig(A) Compute the eigenvalues of A
[L,U,P] = lu(A) The LU factorization P A = LU
ENTRIES OF MATRICES & VECTORS
[V,D] = eig(A) V are the eigenvectors of A, and the
x(5:8) The 5th to the 8th elements of x diagonals diag(D) are the
eigenvalues of A
x(5:end) The 5th to the last elements of x
A\b Compute the solution x to Ax = b
x(1:2:end) Every second element of x from the
first to last
A(3,:) Get the third row of A
A(:,5) Get the 5th column of A
A(5, 2:5) Get the first to fifth elements
in the 5th row

This summary sheet is part of a course offered at the Science

The Science Academy Academy covering various science & engineering topics.
courses.jousefmurad.com For more information, please visit courses.jousefmurad.com
 THE CHEAT SHEET

SCIENCE
PROGRAMMING
ACADEMY WITH MATLAB

LOGICALS PLOTTING & SUBPLOTS

x = linspace(-5*pi, 5*pi, 1000);
a = 20; % Assign a the value of 10 y1 = sin(x);
a == 5 % Test if a is equal to 5 y2 = cos(x);
false
plot(x, y1, 'g-', 'LineWidth',3); % Plot black sin(x) curve
a == 20 % Test if a is equal to 10 hold on % Adding additional curve
true plot(x, y2, 'r-', 'LineWidth',3); % Plot red cos(x) curve
a >= 5 % Test if a is greater than or equal to 5 grid on
set(gca,'fontsize',20)
true
a < 11 % Test if a is less than 11 % Set the axis limits
axis([-5*pi, 5*pi, -1.5, 1.5])
false

a ~= 4 % Test if a is not equal to 4 % Add axis labels

xlabel('x', 'FontSize',20);
true
ylabel('y', 'FontSize',20);
a > 1 && a ~= 10 % Test if a is greater than 1 AND
false % not equal to 10 % Add a title
title('A plot of cos(x) and sin(x)', 'FontSize', 20);
a > 1 || a ~= 5 % Test if a is greater than 1 OR
false % not equal to 10 % Add a legend
legend('sin(x)', 'cos(x)');

FOR-LOOPS WHILE LOOPS

for k = 1:10 k = 0;
disp(k); while k < 5
end k = k + 1;
end

CONDITIONAL STATEMENT
if a > 90
disp('Greater than 90');
elseif a == 90
disp('a is 90'); x = linspace(0,10,50);
else y = rand(50,1);
disp('None of the conditions is mets');
subplot(2,2,1), plot(x,sin(x),'Color','red','LineWidth',3)
end set(gca,'fontsize',14)
axis([0,2*pi,-1,1]), axis square

FUNCTIONS subplot(2,2,2), plot(x,cos(x),'Linewidth',3,'Color','blue')

set(gca,'fontsize',14)
function [a, b] = testfct(x, y) axis([0,2*pi,-1,1]), axis square
a = x + y;
b = x * y; subplot(2,2,3:4)
end y2 = rand(50,1); plot(x,y2,'LineWidth',3)
set(gca,'fontsize',14)
testfct(2, 3) %Call function in script or command window

This summary sheet is part of a course offered at the Science

The Science Academy Academy covering various science & engineering topics.
courses.jousefmurad.com For more information, please visit courses.jousefmurad.com