MATLAB Basics for Engineering Students

Starting MATLAB

• Use the command matlab in the command line or terminal to start MATLAB.
• Ensure that the MATLAB environment is correctly installed to avoid errors.

Creating MATLAB Variables

• Variables can be created by simply assigning a value using the syntax variableName = value;.
• Variable names must start with a letter and can include letters, numbers, and underscores.
• MATLAB is case-sensitive, meaning Variable and variable are treated as distinct entities.

Plot Annotations in MATLAB

• Use title('Your Title') to add a title to the plot.
• Axis labels can be included with xlabel('X-axis Label') and ylabel('Y-axis Label').
• Annotations or text can be added at specific points with the text(x, y, 'Your Text') command.

Entering Vectors in MATLAB

• A vector can be created using square brackets, e.g., v = [1, 2, 3, 4]; for a row vector or v = [1; 2; 3; 4]; for a column vector.
• Elements within the brackets are separated by spaces (for row vectors) or semicolons (for column vectors).

Generating Matrices in MATLAB

• Create a matrix using square brackets with rows defined by semicolons, e.g., M = [1, 2, 3; 4, 5, 6; 7, 8, 9];.
• MATLAB allows operations on matrices such as addition, multiplication, and transposition using built-in commands.