Arrays in Matlab

UC Berkeley
Fall 2004, E77
http://jagger.me.berkeley.edu/~pack/e77

Copyright 2005, Andy Packard. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
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Arrays
A rectangular arrangement of numbers is called
an array.
This is a 4-by-2 array.
It has 4 rows, and 2
columns.
The (3,1) entry is the
entry in the 3rd row,
and 1st column

Later, we will have rectangular arrangement of

more general objects. Those will also be called
arrays.

Scalars, Vectors and Arrays

1-by-1 arrays are also called scalars
1-by-N arrays are also called row vectors
N-by-1 arrays are also called column vectors
Row and Column vectors are also sometimes just called vectors

In Matlab, all arrays of numbers are called double

arrays.

Creating Arrays
Horizontal and Vertical Concatenation (ie., stacking)
Square brackets, [, and ] to define arrays
Spaces (and/or commas) to separate columns
Semi-colons to separate rows

Example
3 4 5
>> [ 3 4 5 ; 6 7 8 ] is the 2-by-3 array 6 7 8

If A and B are arrays with the same number of rows, then

>> C = [ A B ] is the array formed by stacking A next to B
Once constructed, C does not know that it came from two arrays stacked
next to one another. No partitioning information is maintained.
If A and B are arrays with the same number of columns, then
>> [ A ; B ] is the array formed by stacking A on top of B
So, [ [ 3 ; 6 ]

[4 5;7 8] ]

is equal to [ 3 4 5;6 7 8 ]

Creating special arrays

ones(n,m)
a n-by-m double array, each entry is equal to 1

zeros(n,m)
a n-by-m double array, each entry is equal to 0
rand(n,m)
a n-by-m double array, each entry is a random number between 0
and 1.

Examples
>> A = ones(2,3);
>> B = zeros(3,4);
>> C = rand(2,5);

: convention
The : (colon) convention is used to create row vectors, whose
entries are evenly spaced.
7:2:18 equals the row vector

[ 7 9 11 13 15 17 ]

If F, J and L are numbers with J>0, F L, then F:J:L creates a

row vector
[ F F+J F+2*J F+3*J F+N*J ]
where F+N*J L, and F+(N+1)*J>L
Many times, the increment is 1. Shorthand for F:1:L is F:L

F:J:L with J<0 (decrementing)

You can also decrement (ie., J<0), in which case L should be
less than F.
Therefore 6.5:-1.5:0 is the row vector
[ 6.5 5.0 3.5 2.0 0.5 ]

The SIZE command

If A is an array, then size(A) is a 1-by-2 array.
The (1,1) entry is the number of rows of A
The (1,2) entry is the number of columns of A

If A is an array, then

size(A,1) is the number of rows of A

size(A,2) is the number of columns of A
Example
>> A = rand(5,6);
>> B = size(A)
>> size(A,2)

Accessing single elements of a vector

If A is a vector (ie, a row or column vector), then
A(1) is its first element,
A(2) is its second element,

Example

>>
>>
>>
>>

A = [ 3 4.2
A(3)
Index = 5;
A(Index)

-7

10.1

0.4

-3.5 ];

This syntax can be used to assign an entry of A. Recall assignment

>> VariableName = Expression

An entry of an array may also be assigned

>> VariableName(Index) = Expression

So, change the 4th entry of A to the natural logarithm of 3.

>> A(4) = log(3);

Accessing multiple elements of a vector

A(3) refers to the 3rd entry of A. However, the index need not
be a single number.
Example: Make a 1-by-6 row vector, and access multiple
elements, giving back row vectors of various dimensions.
>> A = [ 3 4.2 -7 10.1 0.4 -3.5 ];
>> A([1 4 6]) % 1-by-3, 1st, 4th, 6th entry
>> Index = [3 2 3 5];
>> A(Index) % 1-by-4
Index should contain integers. Regardless of whether A is a
row or column, Index can be a row or a column, and Matlab
will do the same thing in both cases. The expressions below
are the same.
>> A([2 4 3])
>> A([2;4;3])

Assigning multiple elements of a vector

In an assignment to multiple entries of a vector

>> A(Index) = Expression

the right-hand side expression should be a scalar, or the same
size as the array being referenced by A(Index)
Example: Make a 1-by-6 row vector, and access multiple
elements, giving back row vectors of various dimensions.
>> A = [ 3 4.2 -7 10.1 0.4 -3.5 ];
>> A([1 4 6]) = [10 100 1000];
>> Index = [3 2 3 5];
>> A(Index) = pi;

Accessing elements and parts of arrays

If M is an array, then M(3,4) is
the element in the (3rd row , 4th column) of M

If M is an array, then M([1 4 2],[5 6])

is a 3-by-2 array, consisting of the entries of M from
rows [1, 4 and 2]
columns [5 and 6]

In an assignment

>> M(RIndex,CIndex) = Expression

the right-hand side expression should be a scalar, or the same
size as the array being referenced by M(RIndex,CIndex)
Do some examples

Layout in memory
The entries of a numeric array in Matlab are stored
together in memory in a specific order.
>> A = [ 3 4.2 8 ; -6.7 12 0.75 ];
represents the array
Name = A

3.4 4.2
8
6.7 12 0.75

Size = [2 3];
Data = 3

Somewhere in memory, Matlab has

-6.7
4.2
12
8
0.75

Workspace: Base

RESHAPE
RESHAPE changes the size, but not the values or order of the data in
memory.
>> A = [ 3 4.2 8 ; -6.7 12 0.75 ];
>> B = reshape(A,[3 2]);

The result (in memory is)

Name = A

Name = B

Size = [2 3];

Size = [3 2];

Data = 3

Data = 3

-6.7

-6.7

4.2

4.2

12

12

0.75

0.75

So, A is the array

3.4 4.2
8
6.7 12 0.75

while B is the array

6.7

12
8

4.2 0.75

END
Suppose A is an N-by-M array, and a reference of the form

A(RIndex,CIndex)
Any occurence of the word end in the RIndex is changed
(automatically) to N
Any occurence of the word end in the CIndex is changed
(automatically) to M

Example:
>> M = rand(4,5);
>> M(end,end)
>> M([1 end],[end-2:end])

: as a row or column index

Suppose A is an N-by-M array, and a reference of the form

A(RIndex,CIndex)
If RIndex is a single colon, :, then RIndex is changed
(automatically) to 1:N (every row)
If CIndex is a single colon, :, then CIndex is changed
(automatically) to 1:M (every column)

Example:
>> M = rand(4,5);
>> M(:,[1 3 5])

LINSPACE and LOGSPACE

>> linspace(A,B,N) is a 1-by-N row vector of evenly
spaced numbers, starting at A, and ending at B
>> logspace(A,B,N) is a 1-by-N row vector of
logarithmically spaced numbers, starting at 10A, and ending at
10B.
Examples

>> linspace(1,4,6)
>> logspace(-1,1,5)
>> log10(logspace(-1,1,5))

Unary Numeric Operations on double Arrays

Unary operations involve one input argument. Examples are:
Negation, using the minus sign
Trig functions, sin,

cos, tan, asin, acos, atan,

General rounding functions, floor, ceil, fix, round
Exponential and logs, exp, log, log10, sqrt
Complex, abs, angle, real, imag
Example: If A is an N1-by-N2-by-N3-by- array, then

B = sin(A);
is an N1-by-N2-by-N3-by- array. Every entry of B is
the sin of the corresponding entry of A. The for-loop that

cycles the calculation over all array entries is an example of the

vectorized nature of many Matlab builtin functions

Binary (two arguments) operations on Arrays

Addition (and subtraction)
If A and B are arrays of the same size, then A+B is an array of the same size
whose individual entries are the sum of the corresponding entries of A and B
If A is an array and B is a scalar, then A+B is an array of the same size as A,
whose individual entries are the sum of the corresponding entries of A and the
scalar B
If A is a scalar, and B is an array, use same logic as above

Scalar-Array Multiplication
If A is an array,and B is a scalar, then A*B is an array of the same size as A,
whose individual entries are the product of the corresponding entries of A and
the scalar B.

Element-by-Element Multiplication
If A and B are arrays of the same size, then A.*B is an array of the same size
whose individual entries are the product of the corresponding entries of A and B

Matrix multiplication
If A and B are arrays, then A*B is the matrix multiplication of the two arrays
More later

Intro to plotting with Matlab

If X is a 1-by-N (or N-by-1) vector, and Y is a 1-by-N (or N-by-1)
vector, then

>> plot(X,Y)
creates a figure window, and plots the data in the axis. The points plotted
are

(X(1),Y(1)), (X(2),Y(2)), , (X(N),Y(N)).

By default, Matlab will draw straight lines between the data points, and the
points will not be explicitly marked. For more info, do >> help plot
Example:

>> X = linspace(0,3*pi,1000);
>> Y = sin(X);
>> plot(X,Y)

Plotting several lines

If X1 and Y1 are both 1-by-N, and X2 and Y2 are both 1by-M, then

>> plot(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)
will plot both sets of data on the same axis.
Example

>>
>>
>>
>>

X1 = linspace(0,pi,1000);
Y1 = cos(4*X1).*sin(X1);
X2 = [0 1 4 5];
plot(X1,Y1,X2,sqrt(X2))