1

Rounding functions
fix() - Round to the nearest integer towards zero.
floor() - Round to the nearest integer towards minus infinity.
ceil() - Round to the nearest integer towards plus infinity.
round() - Round towards nearest integer.

• Example 1: >> fix(3.1415) • Example 2: >> floor(-3.1415)

ans = ans =
3 - 4
• Example 3: >> ceil(3.1415) • Example 4: >> round(-3.1415)

ans = ans =

4 - 3

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Rounding functions
fix() - Round to the nearest integer towards zero.
floor() - Round to the nearest integer towards minus infinity.
ceil() - Round to the nearest integer towards plus infinity.
round() - Round towards nearest integer.

• Example 5: >> fix(-2.98) • Example 6: >> floor(0.1415)

ans = ans =
- 2 0
• Example 7: >> round(0.5)  In the case of a tie, where an
element has a fractional part of
ans = exactly 0.5, the round function
rounds away from zero to the
1 integer with larger magnitude.
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Random numbers

• The simplest built-in random function is “rand”

rand - generate a random number between 0 and 1:(0,1)

open interval

• How do we generate a random real number in the range from 0

to 8, exclusive?

>> rand*8  To generate a random real number

in the open interval (0,N):
ans =

7.3070
rand * N

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Random numbers

• The simplest built-in random function is “rand”

rand - generate a random number between 0 and 1:(0,1)

open interval

• How do we generate a random integer in the range from 0 to 10,

inclusive?
>> round(rand*10)
round rounds “up” the
ans = random number to an integer

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Random numbers

• Other built-in random functions

randi(max) - generate a random integer: 1 ≤ x ≤ max.

randi([min,max]) - generate a random integer: min ≤ x ≤ max.

• Example: Generate an integer in the inclusive range from 1 to 100:

>> randi(100)

ans =

93

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Random numbers

• Other built-in random functions

randi(max) - generate a random integer: 1 ≤ x ≤ max.

randi([min,max]) - generate a random integer: min ≤ x ≤ max.

• Example: Generate an integer in the inclusive range from 20 to 35:

>> randi([20,35])

ans =

27

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Some Functions in elfun
>> help elfun

Function Description
sin, cos, tan sine, cosine, tangent in radians

sind, cosd, tand sine, cosine, tangent in degree

fix, floor, ceil, rounding functions
round
log(x) natural logarithm (base e (Euler’s number))
log2(x) base 2 logarithm
log10(x) base 10 logarithm
exp(x) ex
sqrt(x) x
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Some Functions in elfun
Function Description
sign(x) sign(x)
Returns:
1 1 if x>0
x 0 if x=0
-1 -1 if x<0

rem (a,b) both return the remainder from division a/b

mod (a,b)
>> rem(14,5)

ans = 4
• Note 1: The order of arguments in rem and mod does matter.
• Note 2: Don’t confuse the value e (Euler’s number) with the e used
in MATLAB to specify an exponent for scientific notation.
>> 10e3
ans = 9
10000
Relational Expressions
• Expressions that are conceptually either true or false are called
relational expressions, or Boolean or logical expressions
• “true” is represented by the logical value 1, and “false” is
represented by the logical value 0

Operator name
> greater than
>= greater than or equal to
< less than
<= less than or equal to
== equal to
~= not equal to

The relational operators in MATLAB 10

Relational Expressions: relational
operators

• Example: >> 10 < 18

ans =
1

• Example: >> 2 ~= 4

ans =

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Relational Expressions: relational
operators

• Example: >> 10 < 18

ans =
1

>> ans + 3

ans =
4

• Although these are logical values, mathematical operations could be

performed on the resulting 1 or 0.

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Relational Expressions: relational
operators

• Example: >> 9 > 8 > 7  Expressions are evaluated

from left to right
1 > 7

ans =
0

• Example: >> 9 > 8 > (7 < 6)

ans =

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Review: Operator Precedence Rules

• Just like normal mathematical computations, some operators

have precedence over others in MATLAB.

operator name precedence

( ) Parentheses • Highest

^ Exponentiation
- Negation
*, /, \ Multiplication and division
+, - Addition and subtraction • Lowest

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Operators Precedence Rules (Update 1):

operator name precedence

( ) Parentheses • Highest

^ Exponentiation or power
- Negation
*, /, \ Multiplication and division
+, - Addition and subtraction
<, <=, >, relational • Lowest
>=, ==, ~=

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Relational Expressions: relational
operators
• Example: >> 9 > 8 > (7 < 6)

9 > 8 > 0

1 > 0
Note: Be careful about using
equality and inequality
ans = operators.
1
Occasionally roundoff errors
appear!
• Example: >> cos (pi/2) == 0
>> cos (pi/2)
ans =
0 ans =
6.1232e-17
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Relational Expressions: logical operators
x
y
• The logical operators in MATLAB are:
||
Operator name
|| or Switch Representation
&& and of OR Function
x y
~ not

&&
• The “or” logical operator will output a true
value if either or both of the operands are true.
Switch Representation
• The “and” logical operator will output a true of AND Function
value only if both of the operands are true.
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 Relational Expressions: logical operators
x
y
• Summary: Truth Table for logical operators:
||

OR Function
x y ~x x || y x && y
True True False True True x y
True False False True False
False True True True False &&
False False True False False
AND Function

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Relational Expressions: logical operators
• The || and && operators in MATLAB are also known as short-circuit
operators.

• This means that if the result of the expression can be determined from
the first part, then the second part will not even be evaluated .

• Example:
According to the truth table, if any
>> b = 0; operands of an AND expression are
false, the entire expression must be
>> (b ~= 0) && (a/d > 18)
false. So, if (b ~= 0) evaluates to false,
MATLAB assumes the entire
0 expression to be false and terminates
ans = its evaluation of the expression early.
0
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Relational Expressions

• Example: >> 3 < 8 || 3 > 8

1 || ...

MATLAB doesn’t evaluate the rest

ans =

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Operators Precedence Rules:

operator name precedence

( ) Parentheses • Highest

^ Exponentiation or power
-, ~ Negation, not
*, /, \ Multiplication and division
+, - Addition and subtraction
<, <=, >, relational
>=, ==, ~=
&& and
|| or • Lowest

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Relational Expressions
• Example: operator
>> 3 == 3 + 3
( )
ans =
^
0
-, ~

• Example: >> 10 < 5 ^ 2 / 2 - 1 || 3 > 8 *, /, \

+, -
25 / 2 0
<, <=, >,
>=, ==, ~=
12.5 - 1
&&
10 < 11.5 ||

1 || 0
ans =
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1
Relational Expressions
• Example:
What would be the value of this expression
>> -5 < x < 3

If the value of x is 0?
What if the value of x is -10?

>> -5 < x < 3

Reminder: Expressions are always
evaluated from left to right.
Either True (1) or False (0)

1 < 3 or 0 < 3

ans = Logical Error!

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1
Relational Expressions

• Question:

if we want an expression that is logical true, which means x is in the

range from -5 to 3, how can we write this in MATLAB?

 5 x 3

>> -5 < x && x < 3

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Relational Expressions

• Comparing characters (e.g. a, b, c) is also possible. Characters

are compared using their ASCII equivalent value

• Example: >> 'a' < 'd'

ans =

http://www.asciitable.com/

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 Common Errors
• Putting space in a variable name

• Confusing the format of an assignment statement (make sure that

the variable name is always on the left (x=6 , not 6=x)
• Forgetting to use parentheses to pass an argument to a function
(e.g., typing “fix 2.3” instead of “fix(2.3)”)
• Confusing the order of arguments passed to functions (e.g., using
rem (3,10) instead of rem (10,3) to find the remainder of 10/3)
• Using = instead of ==
• Putting a space in two-character operators (e.g. < = instead of <=)
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27
Vectors and Matrices
• Vectors and matrices are used to store set of values.

• Vectors and matrices can be visualized as a table of values.

• The dimensions of a matrix are r × c, where r is the number of rows and c is the
number of columns.
3x2
1x1 1x4

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Scalars
• A scalar in MATLAB is an array of size 1 x 1
1

• Example:
>> z = 6 a variable that stores a single value is an
example of a scalar
z =

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Vectors
• A vector in MATLAB is equivalent to a 1-dimensional array where one of the
size of the dimensions is 1
• There are: row vectors (1×n) and column vectors (n×1)

row vector column vector

1x4
3x1

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Row Vectors
• A row vector in MATLAB is a 1 x n array

• Example:
>> v = [1 2 3 4]

v =

1 2 3 4

>> v = [1, 2, 3, 4]

v =

1 2 3 4

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Row Vectors
• MATLAB workspace after a row vector has been assigned:

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Row Vectors: Colon Operator
• The colon operator (:) can be used to iterate values in a vector

• Format:
Vector_variable_name = initial value : step: final value

step size
• Example 1:

>> v = 1:2:7 Results in all of the integers

from 1 to 7 with the step of 2.

v =

1 3 5 7

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Row Vectors: Colon Operator
• Example 2:
>> v = 1:6 If “step” is omitted, the default step size is 1

v =

1 2 3 4 5 6

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Row Vectors: Colon Operator
• Example 3:
>> v = 1:3:12

v =

1 4 7 10 Adding 3 to 10 would go beyond 12,

so the vector stops at 10

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Row Vectors: Colon Operator
• Example 4:

>> start = 20;

>> step = -3;
>> final = 6;
v = start:step:final

v =
Observe that the final value is not
20 17 14 11 8 guaranteed to be at the end of the
vector

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Row Vectors: Linspace
• linspace(x,y,n) function creates a vector with n values in the inclusive
range from x to y. It creates a vector with n values that are linearly
spaced.

• If n is omitted, the default is 100 points

• If n = 1, linspace(x,y,1) returns y

• Example : >> v = linspace(1,10,4)

This creates a vector
with 4 values linearly
v =
spaced between 1 and
10, including 1 and 10.
1 4 7 10

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Concatenating the vectors
• Vectors can be created by joining together existing vectors, or adding
elements to existing vectors

• Example :
>> v1 = 2:5;
>> v2 = 1:3;
>> v_total = [v1 v2]

v_total =

2 3 4 5 1 2 3

From v1 From v2

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