MATLAB

Contents

• Introduction
• Setting Up Your Environment
• Getting Started
• More Information

Introduction

MATLAB is a matrix laboratory, providing high-performance numeric computation and data visualization with an emphasis on standard matrix manipulations. MATLAB is designed for ease of use, and its operations and commands resemble the mathematical notation commonly used with matrices.

Setting Up Your Environment

On some systems, you will need to load the matlab module into your path prior to running matlab. You can do so with the following:

       host% module load matlab

If you plan to use a non-default version, you will need to specify the version you wish to use. Available versions can be found with:

       host% module avail matlab

Getting Started

Once you have logged in, and before beginning MATLAB, you may wish to create a directory for holding your MATLAB files. The following example shows how to create in your home directory a subdirectory named 'matlab':

       host% mkdir ~/matlab
       host% cd ~/matlab

Once the module is loaded, invoke MATLAB with:

       host% matlab

After a few moments, the appearance of the MATLAB prompt '>>' indicates that MATLAB is ready and awaiting your commands. You could enter your commands one at a time, as in the following example:

       >> A = [1 2 3; 4 5 6]
       >> B = [7 8; 9 10; 11 12]
       >> C = A*B

or alternatively, you could write these commands to a file, named as you please, but ending with '.m', then give the filename at the MATLAB prompt. If you created a file named matmult.m, for example, with the same commands as given above, then entering:

       >> matmult

would cause MATLAB to read and execute those same commands with the same result: storing in matrix C the product of matrices A and B, and displaying the contents of each matrix.

Use of these M-files saves you from having to reenter your commands repeatedly. If you wish to access an M-file in a directory other than your current working directory, then enter:

       (csh, tcsh) host% setenv MATLABPATH /desired/subdirectory
       (bash, ksh) host% export MATLABPATH=/desired/subdirectory

To quit MATLAB, use the command:

       >> exit

Note that exiting MATLAB in any other manner can leave MATLAB running.

More Information

• Mathworks Website: http://www.mathworks.com/
• From within MATLAB, for a good overview of its capabilities, enter:

    >> demo
  

• From within MATLAB, for general assistance, enter:

    >> help
  

• Outside of MATLAB, (with the module loaded) enter

    host% man matlab
  

• If further assistance is needed, contact User Support.

Arctic Region Supercomputing Center
PO Box 756020, Fairbanks, AK 99775 | voice: 907-450-8600 | email:

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