Basics of MATLAB and Beyond

Beyond the BasicsPreludeThis part of the book assumes that you already have some competencywith matlab. You may have been using it for a while and you find youwant to do more with it. Perhaps you have seen what other people doand are wondering how it is done. Well, read on.This part of the book follows an introductory course in matlab(Part I) that covered the basics: matrices, typing shortcuts, basic graphics,basic algebra and data analysis, basics of m-files and data files, anda few simple applications, such as curve fitting, FFTs, and sound. Basichandle graphics were introduced using set and get.We begin by looking at sparse matrices and strings, go on to dealwith some of the data types that are new to matlab version 5: cellarrays, multidimensional arrays and structures, then deal with a varietyof topics that you will probably have to deal with at some stage if you area frequent user of matlab. The book can be worked through from startto finish, but if you are not interested in a particular topic, you can skipover it without affecting your understanding of later topics. Exercisesare given throughout the book, and answers to most of them are givenat the end. We start by introducing some new variable types that gobeyond the functionality of a rectangular matrix.25 Sparse ArraysIn some applications, matrices have only a few non-zero elements. Suchmatrices might arise, for example, when analysing communication networksor when performing finite element modelling. matlab providessparse arrays for dealing with such cases. Sparse arrays take up muchless storage space and calculation time than full arrays.c○ 2000 by CRC Press LLC