MATLAB Basics

With a brief review of linear algebra

by Lanyi Xu
modified by D.G.E. Robertson
1. Introduction to vectors and
matrices
 MATLAB= MATrix LABoratory
 What is a Vector?
 What is a Matrix?
 Vector and Matrix in Matlab
What is a vector
A vector is an array of elements, arranged
in column, e.g.,
 x1 
x 
x  2


 
 xn 

X is a n-dimensional column vector.

 In physical world, a vector is normally
3-dimensional in 3-D space or 2-
dimensional in a plane (2-D space), e.g.,

 x1  1  y1  8
x   x2   5 , or y  
 x3  2  y2  6
 If a vector has only one dimension, it
becomes a scalar, e.g.,

z  z1   5  5
 Vector addition
Addition of two vectors is defined by

 x1  y1 
x  y 
xy   2 2

  
 
 xn  y n 

Vector subtraction is defined in a similar manner. In both

vector addition and subtraction, x and y must have the
same dimensions.
Scalar multiplication
A vector may be multiplied by a scalar, k,
yielding
 kx1 
kx 
kx   2

  
 
kxn 
Vector transpose
The transpose of a vector is defined, such
that, if x is the column vector
 x1 
x 
x   2

 
 xn 

its transpose is the row vector

x T  x1 x2  xn 
Inner product of vectors
 The quantity xTy is referred as the inner
product or dot product of x and y and
yields a scalar value (or x ∙ y).
x y  x1 y1  x2 y2    xn yn
T

If xTy = 0
x and y are said to be orthogonal.
 In addition, xTx , the squared length of
the vector x , is

x x  x  x  x
T 2
1
2
2
2
n

 The length or norm of vector x is

denoted by
x x x T
Outer product of vectors
 The quantity of xyT is referred as the
outer product and yields the matrix

 x1 y1 x1 y2  x1 yn 
x y 
x2 y 2  x2 y n 
xy 
T  2 1

    
 
 xn y1 xn y 2  xn y n 
 Similarly, we can form the matrix xxT as

 x12 x1 x2  x1 xn 
 
 x2 x1 x22  x2 xn 
xx 
T
    
 2 
 xn x1 xn x2  xn 

where xxT is called the scatter matrix

of vector x.
Matrix operations
 A matrix is an m by n rectangular array
of elements in m rows and n columns,
and normally designated by a capital
letter. The matrix A, consisting of m
rows and n columns, is denoted as
  
A  a ij
Where aij is the element in the ith row and
jth column, for i=1,2,,m and j=1,2,…,n. If
m=2 and n=3, A is a 23 matrix

 a11 a12 a13 

A 
a 21 a 22 a 23 
 Note that vector may be thought of as a
special case of matrix:
 a column vector may be thought of as a
matrix of m rows and 1 column;
 a rows vector may be thought of as a
matrix of 1 row and n columns;
 A scalar may be thought of as a matrix
of 1 row and 1 column.
Matrix addition
 Matrix addition is defined only when the
two matrices to be added are of
identical dimensions, i.e., that have the
same number of rows and columns.


A  B  aij  bij 
e.g.,
 For m=3 and n=n:

 a11  b11 a12  b12 

A  B  a21  b21 a22  b22 
 a31  b31 a32  b32 
Scalar multiplication
 The matrix A may be multiplied by a
scalar k. Such multiplication is denoted
by kA where

 
kA  kaij
i.e., when a scalar multiplies a matrix, it
multiplies each of the elements of the
matrix, e.g.,
For 32 matrix A,

 ka11 ka12 

kA  ka21 ka22 
ka31 ka32 
Matrix multiplication
 The product of two matrices, AB, read
A times B, in that order, is defined by
the matrix

AB  C  cij 
p
cij   aik bkj  ai1b1 j  ai 2b2 j    aipbpj
k 1
The product AB is defined only when A
and B are comfortable, that is, the number
of columns is equal to the number of rows
in B. Where A is mp and B is pn, the
product matrix [cij] has m rows and n
columns, i.e.,
A m  p B p n  C m  n
For example, if A is a 23 matrix and B
is a 32 matrix, then AB yields a 22
matrix, i.e.,

 a11b11  a12b21  a13b31 a11b12  a12b22  a13b32 

AB  C   
 b  a b a b 
 21 11 22 21 23 31 21 12 22 22 23 32 
a b a a b  a b

In general, AB  BA
For example, if
1 4
 3 2 1
A  2 5 and B  , then
6 5 4 
3 6

1 4 27 22 17 
   3 2 1  
AB  2 5    36 29 22
6 5 4  
3 6  45 36 27
and
1 4 
 3 2 1   10 28
BA     2 5   
6 5 4 3 6 28 73
 

Obviously, AB  BA.
Vector-matrix Product
 If a vector x and a matrix A are
conformable, the product y=Ax is
defined such that
n
yi   aij x j
j 1
For example, if A is as before and
x is as follow,
1 
x  , then
2
1 4 9
  1  
y  Ax  2 5    12
3 6  2
15
Transpose of a matrix
 The transpose of a matrix is obtained
by interchanging its rows and columns,
e.g., if a a a 
A   11 12 13

a21 a22 a23 

 a11 a21 
then T  Or, in general,
A  a12 a22 
A=[aij], AT=[aji].
a13 a23 
Thus, an mn matrix has an nm
transpose.
For matrices A and B, of appropriate
dimension, it can be shown that

AB  T
B A
T T
Inverse of a matrix
 In considering the inverse of a matrix,
we must restrict our discussion to
square matrices. If A is a square
matrix, its inverse is denoted by A-1
such that
1 1
A A  AA  I

where I is an identity matrix.

An identity matrix is a square matrix
with 1 located in each position of the
main diagonal of the matrix and 0s
elsewhere, i.e., 1 0  0
0 1  0 
I 
  
 
0 0  1 
It can be shown that

A   A 
1 T T 1
MATLAB basic operations
 MATLAB is based on matrix/vector
mathematics
 Entering matrices
 Enter an explicit list of elements
 Load matrices from external data files
 Generate matrices using built-in functions
 Create vectors with the colon (:) operator
>> x=[1 2 3 4 5];
>> A = [16 3 2 13; 5 10 11 8; 9 6 7 12; 4 15 14 1]

A=
16 3 2 13
5 10 11 8
9 6 7 12
4 15 14 1
>>
Generate matrices using built-
in functions
 Functions such as zeros(), ones(), eye(),
magic(), etc.
>> A=zeros(3)
A=
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
>> B=ones(3,2)
B=
1 1
1 1
1 1
>> I=eye(4) (i.e., identity matrix)
I=
1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0
0 0 0 1
>> A=magic(4) (i.e., magic square)
A=
16 2 3 13
5 11 10 8
9 7 6 12
4 14 15 1
>>
 Generate Vectors with Colon (:)
Operator
The colon operator uses the following rules to create
regularly spaced vectors:

j:k is the same as [j,j+1,...,k]

j:k is empty if j > k
j:i:k is the same as [j,j+i,j+2i, ...,k]
j:i:k is empty if i > 0 and j > k or if i < 0 and j < k

where i, j, and k are all scalars.

Examples
>> c=0:5
c=
0 1 2 3 4 5
>> b=0:0.2:1
b=
0 0.2000 0.4000 0.6000 0.8000 1.0000
>> d=8:-1:3
d=
8 7 6 5 4 3
>> e=8:2
e=
Empty matrix: 1-by-0
Basic Permutation of Matrix in
MATLAB
 sum, transpose, and diag
Summation
We can use sum() function.
Examples, >> X=ones(1,5)
X=
1 1 1 1 1
>> sum(X)
ans =
5
>>
>> A=magic(4)
A=
16 2 3 13
5 11 10 8
9 7 6 12
4 14 15 1

>> sum(A)
ans =
34 34 34 34

>>
Transpose
>> A=magic(4)
A=
16 2 3 13
5 11 10 8
9 7 6 12
4 14 15 1

>> A'
ans =
16 5 9 4
2 11 7 14
3 10 6 15
13 8 12 1

>>
Expressions of MATLAB
 Operators
 Functions
 Operators
+ Addition-Subtraction
* Multiplication
/ Division
\ Left division
^ Power
' Complex conjugate transpose
() Specify evaluation order
 Functions
MATLAB provides a large number of
standard elementary mathematical functions, including
abs, sqrt, exp, and sin.

Useful constants:

pi 3.14159265...
i Imaginary unit ( 1 )
j Same as i
>> rho=(1+sqrt(5))/2
rho =
1.6180

>> a=abs(3+4i)
a=
5

>>
 Basic Plotting Functions plot( )
The plot function has different forms,
depending on the input arguments.

If y is a vector,
plot(y) produces a piecewise linear graph of
the elements of y versus the index of the elements of y.

If you specify two vectors

as arguments, plot(x,y) produces a graph of y versus x.
Example,

x = 0:pi/100:2*pi;
y = sin(x);
plot(x,y)
 Multiple Data Sets in One
Graph
x = 0:pi/100:2*pi;
y = sin(x);
y2 = sin(x-.25);
y3 = sin(x-.5);
plot(x,y,x,y2,x,y3)
Distance between a Line and a
Point
 given line defined by points a and b
find the perpendicular distance (d) to
point c
b  a  c  a 
 d=
ba
 norm(cross((b-a),(c-a)))/norm(b-a)