Introduction to MATLAB
Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing-I
MTH308
January 09,2026
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Contents
1 Introduction
2 Basic arithmetic operations
3 Variables and simple function scripts in MATLAB
4 Displaying output (disp, fprintf, placeholders)
5 Arrays and matrices
6 Indexing and slicing of arrays and matrices
7 Elementwise versus matrix operations (.*, ./ vs *, /)
8 Basic loops (for, while, etc.)
9 Common built-in functions
10 User-defined functions
11 Basic plotting
12 Using help and doc for MATLAB documentation
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Introduction
MATLAB stands for MATrix LABoratory
High-performance language for technical computing
Integrates computation, visualization, and programming
Widely used in engineering, science, and mathematics
Supports matrix operations, plotting, and algorithm
development
Includes toolboxes for specialized applications
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Basic Arithmetic Operations
MATLAB supports standard arithmetic operators. Explicitly,
MATLAB is just a very powerful calculator .
Operator Meaning Examples:
+ Addition 1) >> 1+2
- Subtraction 2) >>1-2
* Multiplication 3) >>1*2
/ Division 3) >> 1/2
ˆ Exponentiation 4) >> 24
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Exercises:
Calculate the following using the correct order of operations -
Parantheses > Multiplication, Division > Addition, Subtraction
and verify the results using MATLAB.
1 6+4*3-2
2 (4 + 2) * 3 / 2
3 4 + (2 * 3)ˆ2
4 4*2/2*2
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Variables and Simple Function Scripts in MATLAB
Variables store values: x = 5;
Variable names must start with a letter
Functions accept inputs and return outputs : y=sin(x);
Scripts (.m files) contain sequences of commands
Example script: example1.m
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Exercises:
1 For a=2 , b=3 , c=4 store the value of sum in d.
2 For x = 1/2 .Calculate eˆx.
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Displaying Output
disp(x): displays value of x
fprintf: formatted output with placeholders
Placeholders: %d (integer), %f (float), %s (string)
For floating point numbers, you can use .b%f, to display b
many decimal points of the number.
Examples:
>> x = 5;
>> disp(5);
>> y = sin(x);
>> fprintf(’Value of y is %d\n ’, y);
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Exercises:
1 Display the value of y as a floating point number, with 2
decimal points.
2 Find y /x and display that with 5 decimal points.
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Arrays and Matrices
Matrix: 2D array of numbers
Row vector: [1 2 3]
Column vector: [1; 2; 3]
Matrix creation:
>> A = [1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9]
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Exercises:
Save a 3x3 identity matrix as I, and display it.
Find the transpose of R, using the transpose function,
and name it as RT. Is it the same as C?
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Indexing and Slicing of Arrays and Matrices
Access elements with A(i,j)
Colon (:) operator for ranges
end keyword for last index
Example : >> A(2,3) ( element at row 2, col 3)
ans = 6
>> A(1:2, :) ( first two rows)
ans =
123
456
>> A(:, end) (last column)
ans =
3
6
9
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Exercises:
1 Find and display the first column and row of the matrix I,
from the previous exercises.
2 Find and display the second element of R and RT . Are
they the same? Will they always be?
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Elementwise vs Matrix Operations
.*, ./, .ˆ operate element-by-element
*, / perform matrix algebra
Example :
>> A = [1 2; 3 4];
>> B = [5 6; 7 8];
>> A .* B
>> A * B
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Exercise:
1 Find and display A + B.
2 Find the result of A./B and A/B. Are they the same? What
do you think each of them returns?
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Basic Loops
for loop: fixed number of iterations
while loop: repeats while condition true
break exits loop, continue skips to next iteration
1)for loop example
for i = 1:5
disp(i);
end
2) while loop example
x = 1;
while x < 10
x = x * 2;
end
disp(x);
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Exercises:
1 Write a for loop to find the factorial of 15. Check if your
answer is correct using the factorial() function.
2 Write a while loop that finds the largest multiple of 17 that
is less than 150.
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Common Built-in Functions
sin, cos, tan
exp, log, log10
sqrt, abs
max, min, sum
size, length
Examples:
>> sin(pi/2)
ans = 1
>>sqrt(16)
ans = 4
>> max([1 5 3])
ans = 5
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Exercises:
1 Using length, verify the number of elements in
V = [1, 9, 8, 74, 2, 91, 3, 8].
2 Using size, verify the dimensions of the I matrix from
previous exercises.
3 Using in-built functions, find the minimum, maximum and
sum of elements in V , and display them.
4 Using in-built functions, find and display the element-wise
logarithm and exponent of V . (Note that you do not need a
loop here)
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User-defined Functions
You can also define your own functions, using the format :
function y = func name(inputs)
- Code to calculate y -
end
Example:
function y = matrix product(A,B)
y = A*B;
end
User-defined functions must be placed at the end of script
files for the script to execute.
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Basic Plotting
plot(x, y) for 2D graphs
Add titles, labels, legends
Multiple plots in one figure
Example:
x = 0:0.1:2*pi;
y = sin(x);
plot(x, y);
title(’Sine Wave’);
xlabel(’x’);
ylabel(’sin(x)’);
grid on;
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Exercises:
1 Using the same x vector, plot a similar graph for cos(x).
2 Plot a graph of exp(x), for the range of x starting at 0, and
ending at 100, with a step increment of 0.5.
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Using help and doc
help function name: Show brief help in Command
Window
doc function name: opens full documentation
lookfor keyword: searches for functions by keyword
Example:
>> help sin
SIN Sine of argument in radians.
>> doc plot
Opens detailed plotting guide
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