1. Introduction To MATLAB Programming
Chapter 2

2. Amazon.com’s Automated Kiva Robots
MATLAB Programming
Interactive MATLAB use
only good if problem is simple
Often, many steps are needed
We also want to be able to automate repeated tasks
Automated data processing is common in Earth science!
Automated Earthquake Detection and Notification (USGS)
Amazon.com’s Automated Kiva Robots
Automated Stream Discharge Monitoring (USGS)

3. Program vs. Script
Computers only understand low-level language machine code
Low-level languages are much faster, but very difficult for humans to write efficiently
MATLAB is a high-level language
Uses code that is human readable
Much easier to write
E.g. “disp”, “fprintf”, “plot”, etc…
Compiler: Translates a high level language into an executable object code program (*.exe in MS Windows)
Creates an executable file (binary) from source code (ascii)
E.g. Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Office (source code: C++)
firefox.exe winword.exe (machine language executable files)
MATLAB does something a little different…

4. Program vs. Script MATLAB is an interpreted language
Code is read line by line by an interpreter (not a compiler)
Each line of code is translated into machine language and executed on the fly
No .exe file is generated (can force MATLAB to make .exe files)
Because MATLAB code is not compiled…
source code is referred to as a script
Also called M-files (end in .m)
Advantages
Don’t need to spend time compiling the code to use it
Don’t need to recompile after you make changes
Same script will work on any operating system with MATLAB
Disadvantages
Because code is compiled on the fly, some tasks can be slow*
Others can change your code*

5. Algorithm Example
Before starting to write any code, you should break the problem down into a simple algorithm
Algorithm: A sequence of steps to solve a problem
Example Algorithm: Calculate Volume of a Sphere
Get the input: radius of sphere
Calculate the result: volume of sphere
Display the result
Input typically comes from:
The user typing in a value when prompted
A file on your hard disk
Output typically goes to:
The screen (i.e. the MATLAB command window)

6. Algorithm Example Example Algorithm: Calculate Volume of a Sphere
Get the input: radius of sphere
Set the radius
Store the radius in a variable
Calculate the result: volume of sphere
Plug radius into volume equation
Store result in variable
Display the result
We’ll do this later…

7. Simple Script Example Subsequent lines
The top of all scripts should contain commented documentation
H1 line: a short comment on what the script does
“lookfor” will read this
Subsequent lines
Script name
Author info
Date
Details of what the code does
Usage (if a function)
Leave one blank line before starting code
Read by “help” and “doc”

8. Documenting Your Code
Any line of MATLAB code that begins with “%” is ignored by the interpreter
Referred to as: “comments”
Do not slow down execution of your code
MATLAB doesn’t even read comments, but people do
Comments allow you to tell yourself and others what you did
Typically you can fit most comments into a single line
%set the radius value
rad = 23;
%compute the area
Area = pi * (rad ^ 2);
%MATLAB ignores commented lines. Use them!!!
In this class:
uncommented code gets a zero
Every line of code must have a brief comment
In all scripts, separate into sections
1) Header/Documentation
2) Calculations
3) Plotting
4) Output

9. Input Function Sometimes we want to ask the user for an input
More general than hard-coding values into a script
I/O – Input and output
(The default input device in MATLAB is the keyboard)
The user’s value is stored in “rad” as a double
The user can signify a string by using single quotes
Warning! The variable is assumed to be a double
Better: Use the ‘s’ option. Input is casted as a string

10. Input Function Examples
Because “rad” is stored, you can use it later
Why are the single quotes stored?
Why does this not give the expected result?
What happened here?

11. Output Statements: disp
To be a useful, a script must be able to output a result
Simplest output: Print to the command window
Use either “disp” or “fprintf”
“disp” can print strings or numbers
“disp” can print variables
“disp” can only print one thing at a time.
For this reason, MATLAB also provides “fprintf”

12. Output Statements: fprintf
fprintf has a somewhat confusing syntax
Most programming languages have fprintf (or printf)
Syntax was inherited from C / C++
“fprintf” does not include a new line (“\n”) after a string, unless you tell it to do so.
Use the new line special character, “\n”
You do not need a space before or after a special character, but adding a space makes code easier to read.
“fprintf” also recognizes these special characters
For more info, see “doc fprintf” and click on the “formatting strings” link near the bottom of the page

13. Output Statements: fprintf
“fprintf” can also be used to print variables
Can apply special formatting to numeric variable (Very Useful!!)
When you use fprintf to print a variable, a variable is indicated by a place holder, in this case “%d”
The variable name must be given after the string.
“%f” indicates that a floating point number is to be printed.
“fprintf” recognizes these conversion characters
For more info, see “doc fprintf” and click on the “formatting strings” link near the bottom of the page
Can print multiple variables in one line! (“disp” can’t do this)

14. Output Statements: fprintf
“fprintf” and %f can be used to control just about every aspect of the formatting of a floating point number
By default, 7 digits are shown, even though MATLAB variables are stored with 17 digits of precision (if needed)
MATLAB double variables can hold only 17 digits. Anything beyond the 17th place gets displayed as a zero and is not stored.
Want to print π rounded to two decimal places?
MATLAB uses a compact format by default, so numbers get displayed in scientific notation.
“fprintf” can override this!
Want to print a variable in scientific notation with 5 decimal places?

15. Output Statements: fprintf
“fprintf” is also great for printing out numbers so they are in neat columns.
Note the different results. How does this work?
%6.2f
Leave at least 6 total spaces for each number
includes decimals, exponents, and negative signs
Round to 2 decimal places
%06.2f
Same as above, but show leading zeros
Note that “fprintf” treats matrices/vectors in strange ways!

16. Output Statements: Matrices
“fprintf” treats matrices in strange ways
Although the behavior is strange, it is consistent
“disp” is much better for printing a matrix to the screen
“disp” does the job, but the output is not formatted
“fprintf” can do the job, but it is awkward, and should only be used as a last resort

17. Scripts to Produce Plots
MATLAB has numerous built-in plotting functions
we can automate visualization of data!
Make two data sets to plot: (x,y) and (x,y2)
Make two data sets to plot: (x,y) and (x,y2)
Why is this plot unacceptable?

18. Scripts to Produce Plots
Why not put all of the commands into a script?
More efficient than typing into the command window
Let’s Make this plot acceptable!

19. Scripts to Produce Plots
“plot” is a very powerful function
“doc plot” and read many times!
Also, “doc linespec” is critical
This plot is labeled and is acceptable
Added in axis labels (with units)
Specifies the plotted range so show the curve better

20. Scripts to Produce Plots
This plot is a bit overwhelming.
I just do this to demonstrate the capabilities of “plot”

21. Scripts to Produce Plots

22. Multiple Plots In One Figure: Subplot

23. Writing Data To Files Often read/writing from external files is useful
Three basic file modes
Read: Just read; do not change
Write: Write from beginning of file to end
Append: Add to the end of an existing file
MATLAB offers several commands/functions that can write data to files
“save”
“dlmwrite”
“fprintf”

24. Writing Data To Files: “save”
“save” is the simplest way to save data to a file
Is also most limited
Default is to write a binary .mat file (not usually what you want)

25. Writing Data To Files: “save”
By default, save will write ascii files with only 8 digits of precision.
To override and print all 17 digits, use ‘-double’

26. Writing Data To Files: “save”
By using the ‘-append’ option, you can add to files that already exist
This is a way to print files that do not have a constant number of columns

27. Writing Data To Files: “dlmwrite”
“dlmwrite” is a slightly more flexible version of save
Can choose the delimiter between values
Can format output (uses fprintf style conversion characters)
How can we get the output to look cleaner?
Specify the ‘precision’
uses fprintf conversion characters!
“dlmwrite” prints data whatever “format” MATLAB is using

28. Writing Data To Files: “dlmwrite”
“dlmwrite” can use fprintf style conversion characters
Use ‘-precision’ option
What if we want each column to be formatted differently?
“fprintf”!!!
We’ll learn this later once we know loops

29. Reading Data From Files
The simplest way to read in data from an external file into MATLAB is the “load” command
Files MUST have:
Consistent numbers of columns
Only numeric data
Can also load .mat files (not usually what you want)
Let’s make two data files with some random numbers

30. Sample Data Files

31. Reading Data From Files
“load” stores everything in one matrix
You can separate things out later if it makes your code clearer
The filename (minus the extension) is the variable name
Or you can set the variable name (this is MUCH better)

32. Reading Data From Files
“load” stores everything in one matrix
You can separate things out later if it makes your code clearer

33. Reading Data From Files
“load” stores everything in one matrix
You can separate things out later if it makes your code clearer

34. User-Defined Functions
You have already used many built in functions in MATLAB
plot, sin, cos, int8, double, fprintf, linspace, etc…
For example “linspace”
The “Call”, or “calling” the function
“Arguments”
Where the “returned” value is stored

35. User-Defined Functions
Lets look at the general function setup
Example: Converting mph to m/s
The “function header” (required for all functions)
The reserved word, “function” (1st line must start with this)
Name of function (identical to name of m-file without .m)
Input arguments (must be provided by the user)
Value that is “returned” (not all functions need to return something)

36. User-Defined Functions
Function must be in your pwd or MATLAB path
Call by function name
no .m at end
Same as scripts!
Why ans = ?
All variables inside a function are local variables
Only exist inside the function!!
May be confusing at first, but keeps things tidy
User doesn’t care about all of the intermediate variables
Only wants the returned value
Why are “v” and “mph” not defined in the command window?

37. User-Defined Functions
Functions can use any number of variables
All of these variables are local!
The user won’t be aware of them unless he/she opens the m-file

38. A Poorly Written Function
Why is this a bad idea?
This is NOT how you return a result
The result, v, is not accessible to the user

39. Another Poorly Written Function
Why is this even worse?

40. Another Poorly Written Function
Returned value was stored in “ans”
Not illegal, but bad programming
Local variables should not be printed to the screen
Confusing!!
Not accessible to the user
Printing variables is slow

41. Functions That Make Plots
Functions can
Accept more than one argument (separated by commas)
Make plots

42. Functions That Make Plots
Functions can
Accept more than one argument (separated by commas)
Make plots

43. Functions That Return Multiple Values
Functions can return multiple values
Or even matrices!

44. Functions That Return Multiple Values
Functions can return multiple values
Or even matrices!
If you only specify one variable, only the first returned value is stored
How could we return both “x” and “y” as one matrix “xy”?

45. A Script That Calls A Function

46. Thoughts on Functions Why Make Functions?
When a task is often repeated, functions save time
Faster than using “prompt”
When Writing a Function…
Start by sketching out the basic algorithm (pencil & paper)
Write algorithm first as a script
Difficult to troubleshoot functions because variables are local
Once the script works, generalize it into a function
Functions do not need to return a value
Some functions make plots, print information, or write files
If a function does not require an input argument
It should probably be left as a script
Remember that scripts can call functions multiple times