MATLAB Notes

A. BASIC SYNTAX 
   cd                         % show current directory
   cd ..                      % like unix, move up a directory
   cd /home/hartigan/programs % change directory
   ls                         % like unix, shown in side window
   open file.dat              % read in data from a file
   %                          % the comment character
   x                          % prints x to screen
   clear                      % clear variables from workspace (listed in right panel)
   save stuff.dat             % save variables from current session
   save y y                   % saves vector y into file y.mat, which is a binary format
                              %  that matlab can open, e.g. via the menu 'open' command
   load stuff.dat             % load variables from previous session
   str = ' a string'          % define a character string
   str1 = [str ' = ' num2str(a)] % combine strings. num2str converts number to string
   doc command                % manual on command
   help command               % short help on command
   type test.dat              % print contents of test.dat to screen

B. NUMERICAL OPERATIONS
   pi*exp(1)                  % pi and e
   log10(x)                   % logarithm base 10.  log is natural log
   x^3                        % cube of x.   x**3 does not work
   x=0:0.5:4;                 % sequence, x=0,0.5,1.0,...4.0
   cos(x)                     % basic trig functions work
   acos(x)                    % inverse trig functions in radians
   max(a)                     % maximum value of a
%
   x=[2,5;3,-3]               % define a matrix
   inv(x)                     % matrix inverse
   det(x)                     % matrix determinant
   x'                         % matrix transpose
   zeros(3,2)                 % 3x2 matrix of zeros
   [x;x;x]                    % stack 3 x's to form a taller matrix
   a(2,:)                     % all values in row 2 of array ':' is wildcard
% 
   rand(30,2)                 % 2 columns of 30 random numbers
%
   mean(y)                    % mean of y
   var(y)                     % variance of y
   

C. PLOTTING
   plot(x,y)                  % the plot command, black line
   plot(x,y,'b--')            % dashed blue line, b-. for dot-dash, g* for green stars
                              % d for diamonds, k- for black line, etc
   xlabel('Wavelength')       % xlabels and ylabels
   title('Important Graph')   % title of plot
   legend('Temp','Density')   % legend for plot
   surf(x,y,x)                % surface plot. use meshgrid to embed grid
   subplot(2,2,1); plot commands ;  % plot 1 of 4 in a 2x2 grid
   char(176)                  % the degree character

D. PRINTING
E. PROGRAMMING
   for k=1:n               % syntax for looping
    c(i)=y(3*i)
   end
                           %scripts
   file                       % runs script of matlab commands from file.m ; the .m matters
                              % cannot be named 'try.m' as that is something else in the path

                  % open a file and read columns of data from it
   fid=fopen('name.dat','r');  % 'r' to read, 'w' to write, fid is a logical unit number
   fgetl(fid)                  % read a single line to skip over header
   a=fscanf(fid,'%f',[5,Inf]); % '%f' is for floating point, 5-column file, %d for integers
   col3=a(3,:)'                % column 3 of name.dat
   fclose(fid)                 % close the file

   frewind(fid);               % rewind file to beginning

   pause(0.5)                  % sleep for 0.5 seconds

F. WAVELETS
   waveletAnalyzer             %launches wavelet gui; useful for seeing coefficients
                               %click on Property Editor, then click the axis to change font
                               % Tools->Data Cursor and click to see values; Right-click to delete
  cwt(x,'haar','NumberofOctaves',8,'VoicesperOctave',10,seconds(1))  %Continuous wavelet spectrogram
                               % Haar is the wavelet, seconds tells it to do periods
                               % icwt is the inverse transform