9/7/2015

Lecture5

Lecture5
Warmupexercise
Writeaforloopthatcalculatesthefirst20Fibonaccinumbers.Placeresultinavector
Fibo,sothatFibo(n)isthenthnumber.Recallthatthesequencesatisfies:
F(1)=1
F(2)=1
forn>2
F(n)=F(n1)+F(n2)

whileStatements
Sometime,youneedtoiteratemanytimesbutdon'treallywanttocreateavector,oryoudon't
knowinadvancehowmanytimeyouneedtoiterate...forthisyoucanuseawhilestatement.
Thesyntaxforawhilestatementis
whileexpression
a
bunch
of
statements
end
Atthebeginningofeachiteration,Matlabevaluatestheexpressionatthetopoftheloop.ifit
istrue,Matlabexecutesthestatementstotheend.Ifitisfalse,Matlabjumpstotheend
andcontinuesafterit.
So,forexample:

>>x=10
>>whilex>0
x=x1
end
>>

willprintoutallthenumbersfrom9to0(includingboth)

Takenoteoftwothings:

Matlabdoesnotchecktheexpressionallthetime.Onlybeforestartinganewiteration
Iftheexpressionatthetopisfalsewhenthefirstiterationshouldstart,itwillnot.

Exercises
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Lecture5

Findthevalueofthe100thFibonaccinumber,usingawhileloop,andnobigvectors.
Writeyourprimecheckingprogramusingawhileloopinsteadofaforloop.
Writeawhileloopthatmodifiesn.ifnisevenitchangesnton/2,otherwise,it
changesitto3n+1.ifnis1theloopstops.Trythisoutforseveraldifferentstarting
values.Counthowmanystepsyouneedtogetto1.

Definingyourownfunction
WhileMatlabhasavastcollectionoffunctions,sometimesyouwanttoaddsomeofyour
own.Afunctionshouldbethoughtofasablackbox,withaslotinthetop(fortheinput)anda
draweratthebottomfortheoutput.Whenyougivethefunctioninput("callthefunction"),it
calculatestheoutputandputsitinthedrawer("returnsit").Oncethefunctioniswritten,you
donotneedtocareabouthowitworks.

Functionsmustbedefinedintheirownfile,andthenameofthefilemustmatchthenameof
thefunction.So,forexample,todefineafunctioncalledexample_function_1,createafile
namedexample_function_1.m.Thatfilemuststartwiththekeywordfunction,so

functiony=example_function_1(x)

isthefirstlineofthefile.let'sdissectthisfirstline:
function

AsIsaid,thefirstwordmustbe"function".

y=

Thisdeclaresthelocalnameofavariablewhosevaluewill
bereturnedwhentheexecutionofthefunctionisover.

example_function_1

Thenameofthefunction.Thismustmatchthenameofthe
file.

(x)

Thelocalnameofthevariablethatwillcontaintheinput
value.

Sotherestofthefilecouldbe

y=2*x
end

admittedly,averyboringfunction:Ittakestheinputvalue(locallycalledx),doublesit,and
assignsthatresulttoy.Sinceyisdeclaredtobethereturnvalueandthefunctionhas
ended,thereturnvalueissimplytwicetheinput.

wecallthefunctionbygivingitavalue:

>>example_function_1(17)

or

>>example_function_1(rand)

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Thereturnvaluecanthenbeassignedtoanothervariable:

>>z=example_function_1(18)
>>z

VariableScope
Animportantdifferencebetweenafunctionandascript(thefilesthatdon'thave"function"as
theirfirstwordarecalledscripts)isthatof"variablescope".
Whenexecutingascriptfromthecommandline,thescriptshasaccesstoallthevariablesthat
aredefinedonthecommandline.Forinstance,ifyouhaveascriptcalledscript1.mwhose
contentsare
x+1
y=y/2
andyourunthisscriptfromthecommandlinelikeso:
>>x=2
>>y=6
>>script1
>>y
Youwillseethatthescriptknowsthatx=2andthaty=6.Notonlythis,notethatyischanged
inthescripts,thenewvalueofy,3isalsothevalueofywhencheckonthecommand
line.Thisseemsnatural,perhaps,butthisisnothowfunctionsbehave.Afunctionwiththe
samecontentfunction1.m
functionfunction1
x+1
y=y/2
willfailtorun,sincewithinthefunctiontherearenosuchvariablesxandy.Thevariablesof
thefunction,aredifferentfromthevariablesoutsidethefunction,eveniftheyhave
thesamename.
changeyourprimecheckingprogramsothattheinputisthenumber,andtheoutputis1
ifthenumberisprimeand0ifnot.
changeyournchangingprogram,sothattheinputistheinitialvalueofnandtheoutput
isthenumberofstepsittooktoreach1.
useyourprimecheckingfunctioninanotherprogram(canbeascript)thatfinds(a)the
1000thprimenumberand(b)thefirstprimenumbergreaterthan1000000.
useyournchangingfunctioninanotherprogram(canbeascript)thatfindsthenumber
ofiterationsneededforthefirst100numbers,andplotsthennicely.

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