Advanced Matlab Programming

Flow Control
Conditional Control if, else, switch
Conditional statements enable you to select at run time which block of code to execute. The
simplest conditional statement is an if statement. For example:
% Generate a random number
a = randi(100, 1);
% If it is even, divide by 2
if rem(a, 2) == 0
disp('a is even')
b = a/2;
end
if statements can include alternate choices, using the optional keywords elseif or else. For example:
a = randi(100, 1);
if a < 30
disp('small')
elseif a < 80
disp('medium')
else
disp('large')
end
Alternatively, when you want to test for equality against a set of known values, use a switch
statement. For example:
[dayNum, dayString] = weekday(date, 'long', 'en_US');
switch dayString
case 'Monday'
disp('Start of the work week')
case 'Tuesday'
disp('Day 2')
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case 'Wednesday'
disp('Day 3')
case 'Thursday'
disp('Day 4')
case 'Friday'
disp('Last day of the work week')
otherwise
disp('Weekend!')
end
For both if and switch, MATLAB executes the code corresponding to the first true condition, and
then exits the code block. Each conditional statement requires the end keyword.
In general, when you have many possible discrete, known values, switch statements are easier to
read than if statements. However, you cannot test for inequality between switch and case values.
For example, you cannot implement this type of condition with a switch:
yourNumber = input('Enter a number: ');
if yourNumber < 0
disp('Negative')
elseif yourNumber > 0
disp('Positive')
else
disp('Zero')
end
Array Comparisons in Conditional Statements
It is important to understand how relational operators and if statements work with matrices. When
you want to check for equality between two variables, you might use
if A == B, ...
This is valid MATLAB code, and does what you expect when A and B are scalars. But when A and B
are matrices, A == B does not test if they are equal, it tests where they are equal; the result is
another matrix of 0's and 1's showing element-by-element equality. (In fact, if A and B are not the
same size, then A == B is an error.)

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A = magic(4);

B = A;

B(1,1) = 0;

A == B
ans =
0

The proper way to check for equality between two variables is to use the isequal function:
if isequal(A, B), ...
isequal returns a scalar logical value of 1 (representing true) or 0 (false), instead of a matrix, as the
expression to be evaluated by the if function. Using the A and B matrices from above, you get
isequal(A, B)
ans =
0
Here is another example to emphasize this point. If A and B are scalars, the following program will
never reach the "unexpected situation". But for most pairs of matrices, including our magic squares
with interchanged columns, none of the matrix conditions A > B, A < B, or A == B is true for all
elements and so the else clause is executed:
if A > B
'greater'
elseif A < B
'less'
elseif A == B
'equal'
else
error('Unexpected situation')
end

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Several functions are helpful for reducing the results of matrix comparisons to scalar conditions for
use with if, including

isequal
isempty
all
any
Loop Control for, while, continue, break
This section covers those MATLAB functions that provide control over program loops.
for
The for loop repeats a group of statements a fixed, predetermined number of times. A matching end
delineates the statements:
for n = 3:32
r(n) = rank(magic(n));
end
r
The semicolon terminating the inner statement suppresses repeated printing, and the r after the
loop displays the final result.
It is a good idea to indent the loops for readability, especially when they are nested:
for i = 1:m
for j = 1:n
H(i,j) = 1/(i+j);
end
end

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while
The while loop repeats a group of statements an indefinite number of times under control of a
logical condition. A matching end delineates the statements.
Here is a complete program, illustrating while, if, else, and end, that uses interval bisection to find a
zero of a polynomial:
a = 0; fa = -Inf;
b = 3; fb = Inf;
while b-a > eps*b
x = (a+b)/2;
fx = x^3-2*x-5;
if sign(fx) == sign(fa)
a = x; fa = fx;
else
b = x; fb = fx;
end
end
x
The result is a root of the polynomial x3 - 2x - 5, namely
x=
2.09455148154233
The cautions involving matrix comparisons that are discussed in the section on the if statement also
apply to the while statement.
continue
The continue statement passes control to the next iteration of the for loop or while loop in which it
appears, skipping any remaining statements in the body of the loop. The same holds true for
continue statements in nested loops. That is, execution continues at the beginning of the loop in
which the continue statement was encountered.
The example below shows a continue loop that counts the lines of code in the file magic.m,
skipping all blank lines and comments. A continue statement is used to advance to the next line in
magic.m without incrementing the count whenever a blank line or comment line is encountered:

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fid = fopen('magic.m','r');
count = 0;
while ~feof(fid)
line = fgetl(fid);
if isempty(line) || strncmp(line,'%',1) || ~ischar(line)
continue
end
count = count + 1;
end
fprintf('%d lines\n',count);
fclose(fid);
break
The break statement lets you exit early from a for loop or while loop. In nested loops, break exits
from the innermost loop only.Here is an improvement on the example from the previous section.
Why is this use of break a good idea?
a = 0; fa = -Inf;b = 3; fb = Inf;
while b-a > eps*b
x = (a+b)/2;
fx = x^3-2*x-5;
if fx == 0
break
elseif sign(fx) == sign(fa)
a = x; fa = fx;
else
b = x; fb = fx;
end
end
x

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Tasks
Task 1: Construct a program to display the values of the function f(x)= x2 +1 for x =0 to x = in steps
of /4. The key here is to set up an array of points from a to b in steps of h (you can either use the
colon command or linspace). Make sure you remember to use the dot operator.
Task 2: Calculate the sum of the series SN, where

for dierent values of N. Given that as

where c is a constant. Determine the value of c.

Task 3: Write down a logical expression which is true for even values of n. Extend this to only be true
for even values of n greater than 20. (Hint: Try using the MATLAB command mod: for information on
the command type help mod.)
Task 4: Try to work out what value of x the following code returns (initially without running it).

Is this result true whichever value of x we start with? (You can nd out about the command isprime
by typing help isprime.)
Task 5: Write a loop structure which iterates xn+1 =5xn|1 for xn = 1/7 until it returns to the same
value (use while).

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Task 6: Determine all integers between 1 and 50 for which n3 n2 +40 is greater than 1000 and n is
not divisible by 3. Are any integers between 1 and 50 perfect (that is, are they equal to the sum of
their factors)?
Task 6: Write a code which only allows the user to input an integer n between 1 and 10 (inclusive)
and then prints out a string of the rst n letters of the alphabet. (Hint: You could start with a string
of the form abcdefghij.)
Task 7: Write a code which allows the user to input a two character string, the rst being a letter and
the second being a digit. (Note that to check if a character is a letter we can use inequalities on
strings.)

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Basic Plotting Commands
1) Plot
plot(Y) plots the columns of Y versus their index if Y is a real number. If Y is complex, plot(Y)
is equivalent to plot(real(Y),imag(Y)). In all other uses of plot, the imaginary component is
ignored.
plot(X1,Y1,...) plots all lines defined by Xn versus Yn pairs. If only Xn or Yn is a matrix, the
vector is plotted versus the rows or columns of the matrix, depending on whether the
vector's row or column dimension matches the matrix.
plot(X1,Y1,LineSpec,...) plots all lines defined by the Xn,Yn,LineSpec triples, where LineSpec
is a line specification that determines line type, marker symbol, and color of the plotted
lines.

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Examples
Plot the sine function over three different ranges using different line styles, colors, and
markers.
t = 0:pi/20:2*pi;
plot(t,sin(t),'-.r*')
hold on
plot(sin(t-pi/2),'--mo')
plot(sin(t-pi),':bs')
hold off

Create a plot illustrating how to set line properties.

plot(t,sin(2*t),'-mo',...
'LineWidth',2,...
'MarkerEdgeColor','k',...
'MarkerFaceColor',[.49 1 .63],...
'MarkerSize',12)

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2) Hold

The hold function determines whether new graphics objects are added to the graph or
replace objects in the graph.
hold on retains the current plot and certain axes properties so that subsequent graphing
commands add to the existing graph.
hold off resets axes properties to their defaults before drawing new plots. hold off is the
default.
hold all holds the plot and the current line color and line style so that subsequent plotting
commands do not reset the ColorOrder and LineStyleOrder property values to the beginning of the
list. Plotting commands continue cyclicing through the predefined colors and linestyles from where
the last plot stopped in the list.
3) plot3
The plot3 function displays a three-dimensional plot of a set of data points.
plot3(X1,Y1,Z1,...), where X1, Y1, Z1 are vectors or matrices, plots one or more lines in
three-dimensional space through the points whose coordinates are the elements of X1, Y1,
and Z1.
plot3(X1,Y1,Z1,LineSpec,...) creates and displays all lines defined by the Xn,Yn,Zn,LineSpec
quads, where LineSpec is a line specification that determines line style, marker symbol, and
color of the plotted lines.
Example : Plot a three-dimensional helix.
t = 0:pi/50:10*pi;
plot3(sin(t),cos(t),t)
grid on
axis square

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Create and control multiple axes

subplot

subplot divides the current figure into rectangular panes that are numbered row wise. Each pane
contains an axes. Subsequent plots are output to the current pane.
subplot(m,n,p) creates an axes in the pth pane of a figure divided into an m-by-n matrix of
rectangular panes. The new axes becomes the current axes.
Examples
To plot income in the top half of a figure and outgo in the bottom half,
income = [3.2 4.1 5.0 5.6];
outgo = [2.5 4.0 3.35 4.9];
subplot(2,1,1); plot(income)
subplot(2,1,2); plot(outgo)

4) loglog
loglog(Y) plots the columns of Y versus their index if Y contains real numbers. If Y contains
complex numbers, loglog(Y) and loglog(real(Y),imag(Y)) are equivalent. loglog ignores the
imaginary component in all other uses of this function.
loglog(X1,Y1,...) plots all Xn versus Yn pairs. If only Xn or Yn is a matrix, loglog plots the
vector argument versus the rows or columns of the matrix, depending on whether the
vector's row or column dimension matches the matrix.
loglog(X1,Y1,LineSpec,...) plots all lines defined by the Xn,Yn,LineSpec triples, where
LineSpec determines line type, marker symbol, and color of the plotted lines. You can mix
Xn,Yn,LineSpec triples with Xn,Yn pairs

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Examples : Create a simple loglog plot with square markers.
x = logspace(-1,2);
loglog(x,exp(x),'-s')
grid on

5) semilogx, semilogy
semilogx and semilogy plot data as logarithmic scales for the x- and y-axis, respectively,
logarithmic.
semilogx(Y) creates a plot using a base 10 logarithmic scale for the x-axis and a linear scale
for the y-axis. It plots the columns of Y versus their index if Y contains real numbers.
semilogx(Y) is equivalent to semilogx(real(Y), imag(Y)) if Y contains complex numbers.
semilogx ignores the imaginary component in all other uses of this function.
semilogx(X1,Y1,...) plots all Xn versus Yn pairs. If only Xn or Yn is a matrix, semilogx plots the
vector argument versus the rows or columns of the matrix, depending on whether the
vector's row or column dimension matches the matrix.
semilogx(X1,Y1,LineSpec,...) plots all lines defined by the Xn,Yn,LineSpec triples. LineSpec
determines line style, marker symbol, and color of the plotted lines.
Examples : Create a simple semilogy plot.
x = 0:.1:10;
semilogy(x,10.^x)

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6) plotyy
Create graphs with y-axes on both left and right side
plotyy(X1,Y1,X2,Y2) plots X1 versus Y1 with y-axis labeling on the left and plots X2 versus Y2
with y-axis labeling on the right.
plotyy(X1,Y1,X2,Y2,function) uses the specified plotting function to produce the graph. function
can be either a function handle or a string specifying plot, semilogx, semilogy, loglog
plotyy(X1,Y1,X2,Y2,'function1','function2') uses function1(X1,Y1) to plot the data for the left
axis and function2(X2,Y2) to plot the data for the right axis
Examples :
This example graphs two mathematical functions using plot as the plotting function.
The two y-axes enable you to display both sets of data on one graph even though relative values
of the data are quite different
x = 0:0.01:20;
y1 = 200*exp(-0.05*x).*sin(x);
y2 = 0.8*exp(-0.5*x).*sin(10*x);
[AX,H1,H2] = plotyy(x,y1,x,y2,'plot');
You can use the handles returned by plotyy to label the axes and set the line styles used for plotting.
With the axes handles you can specify the YLabel properties of the left- and right-side y-axis:

set(get(AX(1),'Ylabel'),'String','Left Y-axis')
set(get(AX(2),'Ylabel'),'String','Right Y-axis')
xlabel('Zero to 20 \musec.')
title('Labeling plotyy')
set(H1,'LineStyle','--')
set(H2,'LineStyle',':')

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Plotting Only the Data Points
To plot a marker at each data point without connecting the markers with lines, use a specification
that does not contain a line style. For example, given two vectors,
x = 0:pi/15:4*pi;
y = exp(2*cos(x));
calling plot with only a color and marker specifier
plot(x,y,'r+')
plots a red plus sign at each data point. The graph shows a plot of the expression e to the 2 cosine of
x, where x is a vector ranging from 0 to 4 pi. The y-axis ranges from zero to 8 and the x-axis ranges
from zero to 14. A red plus sign is displayed at each data point, but no line connects the markers.

Plotting Markers and Lines

To plot both markers and the lines that connect them, specify a line style and a marker type. For
example, the following command plots the data as a red, solid line and then adds circular markers
with black edges at each data point.
x = 0:pi/15:4*pi;
y = exp(2*cos(x));
plot(x,y,'-r',x,y,'ok')

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Line Plots of Matrix Data
When you call the plot function with a single matrix argument
plot(Y)
MATLAB draws one line for each column of the matrix. The x-axis is labeled with the row index
vector 1:m, where m is the number of rows in Y. For example,
Z = peaks;
returns a 49-by-49 matrix obtained by evaluating a function of two variables. Plotting this matrix
plot(Z)
produces a graph with 49 lines. The graph shows each column plotted as one line. The axes
ColorOrder property determines the color of each line as MATLAB cycles through the list of colors.

USE colormap with this example to see interesting results.

Plotting Imaginary and Complex Data

When the arguments to plot are complex (i.e., the imaginary part is nonzero), MATLAB ignores the
imaginary part except when plot is given a single complex data argument. For this special case, the
command is a shortcut for a plot of the real part versus the imaginary part. Therefore, plot(Z) where
Z is a complex vector or matrix, is equivalent to plot(real(Z),imag(Z))
For example, this statement plots the distribution of the eigenvalues of a random matrix using
circular markers to indicate the data points.
plot(eig(randn(20,20)),'o','MarkerSize',6)

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Tasks
Task 1: Use linspace to create a vector t that ranges from 0 to 2*pi and then plot the function

first as a x-y plot, then as a polar plot. Use subplot to keep them in the same figure.
Task 2: Plot

range being ,
What should you do about x=0? Hint: read help on eps.
Task 3: Try to duplicate the plot shown here. Hint-1: use the sin function itself to calculate the points
where the annotation should be located. Hint- 2: try using \leftarrow in your strings.

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Bar and Area Graphs
Bar and area graphs display vector or matrix data. These types of graphs are useful for viewing
results over a period of time, comparing results from different data sets, and showing how individual
elements contribute to an aggregate amount. Bar graphs are suitable for displaying discrete data,
whereas area graphs are more suitable for displaying continuous data.

Types of Bar Graphs

1) Grouped Bar Graph
By default, a bar graph represents each element in a matrix as one bar. Bars in a 2-D bar graph,
created by the bar function, are distributed along the x-axis with each element in a column
drawn at a different location. All elements in a row are clustered around the same location on
the x-axis. For example, define Y as a simple matrix and issue the bar statement in its simplest
form.
Y = [5 2 1; 8 7 3; 9 8 6; 5 5 5; 4 3 2];
bar(Y)
The bars are clustered together by rows and evenly distributed along the x-axis.

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2) Detached 3-D Bars
The bar3 function, in its simplest form, draws each element as a separate 3-D block, with the
elements of each column distributed along the y-axis. Bars that represent elements in the first
column of the matrix are centered at 1 along the x-axis. Bars that represent elements in the last
column of the matrix are centered at size(Y,2) along the x-axis. For example,
bar3(Y)
displays five groups of three bars along the y-axis. Notice that larger bars obscure Y(1,2) and
Y(1,3).

3) Grouped 3-D Bars

Cluster the bars from each row beside each other by specifying the argument 'group'. For
example,
bar3(Y,'group')
groups the bars according to row and distributes the clusters evenly along the y-axis.

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4) Stacked Bar Graphs to Show Contributing Amounts
Bar graphs can show how elements in the same row of a matrix contribute to the sum of all
elements in the row. These types of bar graphs are referred to as stacked bar graphs. Stacked
bar graphs display one bar per row of a matrix. The bars are divided into n segments, where n is
the number of columns in the matrix. For vertical bar graphs, the height of each bar equals the
sum of the elements in the row. Each segment is equal to the value of its respective element.
Redefining Y
Y = [5 1 2;

8 3 7;

9 6 8;

5 5 5;

4 2 3];

Create stacked bar graphs using the optional 'stack' argument. For example,
bar(Y,'stack')
grid on
set(gca,'Layer','top') % display gridlines on top of graph
creates a 2-D stacked bar graph, where all elements in a row correspond to the same x location.

5) Horizontal Bar Graphs

For horizontal bar graphs, the length of each bar equals the sum of the elements in the row. The
length of each segment is equal to the value of its respective element.
barh(Y,'stack')
grid on
set(gca,'Layer','top') % Display gridlines on top of graph

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Specifying X-Axis Data
Bar graphs automatically generate x-axis values and label the x-axis tick lines. You can specify a
vector of x values (or y values in the case of horizontal bar graphs) to label the axes. For example,
given temperature data,
temp = [29 23 27 25 20 23 23 27];
obtained from samples taken every five days during a thirty-five day period,
days = 0:5:35;
you can display a bar graph showing temperature measured along the y-axis and days along the xaxis using
bar(days,temp)
These statements add labels to the x- and y-axis.
xlabel('Day')
ylabel('Temperature (^{o}C)')

Setting Y-Axis Limits

By default, the y-axis range is from 0 to 30. To focus on the temperature range from 15 to 30, change
the y-axis limits.
set(gca,'YLim',[15 30],'Layer','top')

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Overlaying Other Plots on Bar Graphs
You can overlay data on a bar graph by creating another axes in the same position. This enables you
to have an independent y-axis for the overlaid data set in contrast to the hold on statement, which
uses the same axes.
For example, consider a bioremediation experiment that breaks down hazardous waste components
into nontoxic materials. The trichloroethylene (TCE) concentration and temperature data from this
experiment are
TCE = [515 420 370 250 135 120 60 20];
temp = [29 23 27 25 20 23 23 27];
This data was obtained from samples taken every five days during a thirty-five day period:
days = 0:5:35;
Display a bar graph and label the x- and y-axis using the statements
bar(days,temp)
xlabel('Day')
ylabel('Temperature (^{o}C)')

Overlaying a Line Plot on the Bar Graph

1. To overlay the concentration data on the bar graph, position a second axes at the same
location as the first axes, but first save the handle of the first axes:
h1 = gca;
2. Create the second axes at the same location before plotting the second data set:
h2 = axes('Position',get(h1,'Position'));
plot(days,TCE,'LineWidth',3)

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3. To ensure that the second axes does not interfere with the first, locate the y-axis on the right
side of the axes, make the background transparent, and set the second axes' x tick marks to
the empty matrix:
set(h2,'YAxisLocation','right','Color','none','XTickLabel',[])
4. Align the x-axis of both axes and display the grid lines on top of the bars:
set(h2,'XLim',get(h1,'XLim'),'Layer','top')

Annotating the Graph.

These statements annotate the graph:
text(11,380,'Concentration','Rotation',-55,'FontSize',16,'Color','Red')
ylabel('TCE Concentration (PPM)')
title('Bioremediation','FontSize',16)

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Area Graphs
Area graphs are useful for showing how elements in a vector or matrix contribute to the sum of all
elements at a particular x location. By default, area accumulates all values from each row in a matrix
and creates a curve from those values. The height of the area graph is the sum of the elements in
each row. Each successive curve uses the preceding curve as its base. Using the matrix Y and the
area function, display a graph containing three graph areas, one per column:
Y = [5 1 2; 8 3 7;

9 6 8;

5 5 5;

4 2 3];

harea = area(Y)
% This returns handles to three hggroups (areaseries objects)
grid on

Change the face color of each layer to make the plot more readable:
set(harea(1),'FaceColor',[.5 .8 .9])
set(harea(2),'FaceColor',[.7 .9 .1])
set(harea(3),'FaceColor',[.9 1 1])

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Displaying the Grid on Top.
To display the grid lines in the foreground of the area graph and display only five grid lines along the
x-axis, use the statements
set(gca,'Layer','top')
set(gca,'XTick',1:5)

Pie Charts
Pie charts are a useful way to communicate the percentage that each element in a vector or matrix
contributes to the sum of all elements. pie and pie3 create 2-D and 3-D pie charts. A 3-D pie chart
does not show any more or different information than a 2-D pie chart does; it simply adds depth to
the presentation by plotting the chart on top of a cylindrical base.
This example shows how to use the pie function to visualize the contribution that three
products make to total sales. Given a matrix X where each column of X contains yearly sales figures
for a specific product over a five-year period:
X = [19.3 22.1 51.6;

34.2 70.3 82.4;

61.4 82.9 90.8;

50.5 54.9 59.1;

29.4 36.3 47.0];

Sum each row in X to calculate total sales for each product over the five-year period.
x = sum(X);
You can offset the slice of the pie that makes the greatest contribution using the explode input
argument. This argument is a vector of zero and nonzero values. Nonzero values offset the
respective slice from the chart.
First, create a vector containing zeros:.
explode = zeros(size(x));
Then find the slice that contributes the most and set the corresponding explode element to 1:
[c,offset] = max(x);
explode(offset) = 1;

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The explode vector contains the elements [0 0 1]. To create the exploded pie chart, use the
statement
h = pie(x,explode);
colormap summer

Labeling the Pie Chart

The pie chart's labels are text graphics objects. To modify the text strings and their positions, first get
the objects' strings and extents. Braces around a property name ensure that get outputs a cell array,
which is important when working with multiple objects:
textObjs = findobj(h,'Type','text');
oldStr = get(textObjs,{'String'});
val = get(textObjs,{'Extent'});
oldExt = cat(1,val{:});
Create the new strings, and set the text objects' String properties to the new strings:
Names = {'Product X: ';'Product Y: ';'Product Z: '};
newStr = strcat(Names,oldStr);
set(textObjs,{'String'},newStr)
Find the difference between the widths of the new and old text strings and change the values of the
Position properties:
val1 = get(textObjs, {'Extent'});
newExt = cat(1, val1{:});
offset = sign(oldExt(:,1)).*(newExt(:,3)-oldExt(:,3))/2;
pos = get(textObjs, {'Position'});
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textPos = cat(1, pos{:});
textPos(:,1) = textPos(:,1)+offset;
set(textObjs,{'Position'},num2cell(textPos,[3,2]))

Removing a Piece from a Pie Chart

When the sum of the elements in the first input argument is equal to or greater than 1, pie and pie3
normalize the values. So, given a vector of elements x, each slice has an area of xi/sum(xi), where xi
is an element of x. The normalized value specifies the fractional part of each pie slice.
When the sum of the elements in the first input argument is less than 1, pie and pie3 do not
normalize the elements of vector x. They draw a partial pie.
x = [.19 .22 .41];
pie(x)
colormap summer

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Histograms
Functions for Creating Histograms
Histograms show the distribution of data values across a data range. They do this by dividing the
data range into a certain number of intervals (called "binning" the data), tabulating the number of
values that fall into each interval (or "bin"), and plotting the values in the bins using bars or wedges
of varying height. The functions that create histograms are hist and rose.
Function

Description

Hist

Displays data in a Cartesian coordinate system.

Rose

Displays data in a polar coordinate system.

You can specify the number of bins to use as a scalar second argument. If omitted, the default is 10
(hist) or 20 (rose). Data values passed to hist can be in any units and can be n-by-m, but rose expects
values to be in radians in a 1-by-n or n-by-1 vector. The height (or length when using rose) of the
bins represents the number of values that fall in each bin. You can also vary the size of bins by
specifying a vector for apportioning bin widths as the second argument.
Histograms in Cartesian Coordinates
The hist function shows the distribution of the elements in Y as a histogram with equally spaced bins
between the minimum and maximum values in Y. If Y is a vector and is the only argument, hist
creates up to 10 bins. For example:
yn = randn(10000,1);
hist(yn)
generates 10,000 random numbers and creates a histogram with 10 bins distributed along the x-axis
between the minimum and maximum values of yn.

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Matrix Input Argument
When Y is a matrix, hist creates a set of bins for each column, displaying each set in a separate color.
The statements
Y = randn(10000,3);
hist(Y)
create a histogram showing 10 bins for each column in Y.

Histograms in Polar Coordinates

A rose plot is a histogram created in a polar coordinate system. For example, consider samples of the
wind direction taken over a 12-hour period:
wdir = [45 90 90 45 360 335 360 270 335 270 335 335];
To display this data using the rose function, convert the data to radians, and then use the data as an
argument to the rose function. Increase the LineWidth property of the line to improve the visibility
of the plot (findobj):
wdir = wdir * pi/180;
rose(wdir)
hline = findobj(gca,'Type','line');
set(hline,'LineWidth',1.5)
The plot shows that the wind direction was primarily 335 during the 12-hour period.

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Specifying Number of Bins
hist and rose interpret their second argument in one of two waysas the locations on the axis or the
number of bins. When the second argument is a vector x, it specifies the locations on the axis and
distributes the elements in length(x) bins. When the second argument is a scalar x, hist and rose
distribute the elements in x bins.
For example, compare the distribution of data created by two MATLAB functions that
generate random numbers. The randn function generates normally distributed random numbers,
whereas the rand function generates uniformly distributed random numbers:
yn = randn(10000,1);
yu = rand(10000,1);
The first histogram displays the data distribution resulting from the randn function. The locations on
the x-axis and number of bins depend on the vector x.
x = min(yn):.2:max(yn);
subplot(1,2,1)
hist(yn,x)
title('Normally Distributed Random Numbers')
The second histogram displays the data distribution resulting from the rand function and explicitly
creates 25 bins along the x-axis.
subplot(1,2,2)
hist(yu,25)
title('Uniformly Distributed Random Numbers')

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Discrete Data Graphs
Functions for Creating Graphs of Discrete Data
In addition to bar graphs and pie charts, specialized MATLAB graphics functions appropriately display
discrete data. Discrete data generally represents counts of things, such as traffic accidents by month
or components produced or rejected during the course of a production run. This section describes
how to use stem plots and stairstep plots to display this type of data. The functions for generating
discrete data graphs provided are
Function

Description

Stem

Displays a discrete sequence of y-data as stems from x-axis.

stem3

Displays a discrete sequence of z-data as stems from xy-plane.

Stairs

Displays a discrete sequence of y-data as steps from x-axis.

Two-Dimensional Stem Plots

A stem plot displays data as lines (stems) terminated with a marker symbol at each data value. In a
2-D graph, stems extend from the x-axis.The stem function displays two-dimensional discrete
sequence data. For example, evaluating the function y=e-tcost with the values
alpha = .02; beta = .5; t = 0:4:200;
y = exp(-alpha*t).*cos(beta*t);
yields a vector of discrete values for y at given values of t. A line plot shows the data points
connected with a straight line.
plot(t,y)

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A stem plot of the same function plots only discrete points on the curve:
stem(t,y)
Add axes labels to the x- and y-axis:
xlabel('Time in \musecs')
ylabel('Magnitude')

Combining Stem Plots with Line Plots

Sometimes it is useful to display more than one plot simultaneously with a stem plot to show how
you arrived at a result. For example, create a linearly spaced vector with 60 elements and define two
functions, a and b:
x = linspace(0,2*pi,60);
a = sin(x);
b = cos(x);
Create a stem plot showing the linear combination of the two functions:
stem_handles = stem(x,a+b);
Overlaying a and b as line plots helps visualize the functions. Before plotting the two curves, set hold
to on so the stem plot remains displayed:
hold on
plot_handles = plot(x,a,'--r',x,b,'--g');
hold off
Use legend to annotate the graph. The stem and plot handles passed to legend identify the lines to
label. Stem plots are composed of two lines; one draws the markers and the other draws the vertical
stems. To create the legend, use the first handle returned by stem, which identifies the marker line:

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legend_handles = [stem_handles(1);plot_handles];
legend(legend_handles,'a + b','a = sin(x)','b = cos(x)')
Labeling the axes and creating a title finishes the graph:
xlabel('Time in \musecs')
ylabel('Magnitude')
title('Linear Combination of Two Functions')

Three-Dimensional Stem Plots

stem3 displays 3-D stem plots extending from the xy-plane. With only one vector argument, the
stems are plotted in one row at x = 1 or y = 1, depending on whether the argument is a column or
row vector. stem3 is intended to display data that you cannot visualize in a 2-D view.
Example 3-D Stem Plot of an FFT
Fast Fourier transforms are calculated at points around the unit circle on the complex plane. It is
interesting to visualize the plot around the unit circle. Calculating the unit circle
th = (0:127)/128*2*pi;
x = cos(th);
y = sin(th);
and the magnitude frequency response of a step function. The command
f = abs(fft(ones(10,1),128));
displays the data using a 3-D stem plot, terminating the stems with filled diamond markers:
stem3(x,y,f','d','fill')
view([-65 30])

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Label the Graph

Label the graph with the statements
xlabel('Real')
ylabel('Imaginary')
zlabel('Amplitude')
title('Magnitude Frequency Response')
To change the orientation of the view, turn on mouse-based 3-D rotation:
rotate3d on
Example Combining Stem and Line Plots
Three-dimensional stem plots work well for visualizing discrete functions that do not output a large
number of data points. For example, use stem3 to visualize the Laplace transform basis function,
y=e-st, for a particular constant value of s:
t = 0:.1:10;

% Time limits

s = 0.1+i;

% Spiral rate

y = exp(-s*t);

% Compute decaying exponential

Using t as magnitudes that increase with time, create a spiral with increasing height and draw a
curve through the tops of the stems to improve definition:
stem3(real(y),imag(y),t)
hold on
plot3(real(y),imag(y),t,'r')

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hold off
view(-39.5,62)

Stairstep Plots
Stairstep plots display data as the leading edges of a constant interval (i.e., zero-order hold state).
This type of plot holds the data at a constant y value for all values between x(i) and x(i+1), where i is
the index into the x data. This type of plot is useful for drawing time-history plots of digitally sampled
data systems.
Example Stairstep Plot of a Function
Define a function f that varies over time:
alpha = 0.01;
beta = 0.5;
t = 0:10;
f = exp(-alpha*t).*sin(beta*t);
stairs(t,f)
hold on
plot(t,f,'--*')
hold off
Finally, annotate the graph and set the axes limits:
label = 'Stairstep plot of e^{-(\alpha*t)} sin\beta*t';
text(0.5,-0.2,label,'FontSize',14)
xlabel('t = 0:10','FontSize',14)
axis([0 10 -1.2 1.2])

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Interactive Plotting
Example Selecting Plotting Points from the Screen
You can interact with graphs or generate x-y coordinates interactively. The ginput function enables
you to use the mouse or the arrow keys to select points to plot. ginput returns the coordinates of
the pointer's position, either the current position or the position when a mouse button or key is
pressed. For more information see the ginput function. You can use it to pick points on a graph to
return their x and y values for processing, to outline an area of interest, or to draw arbitrary shapes.
This example illustrates the use of ginput with the spline function to create a curve by interpolating
in two dimensions. First, select a sequence of points, [x,y], in the plane with ginput. Then pass two
one-dimensional splines through the points, evaluating them with a spacing one-tenth of the original
spacing:
axis([0 10 0 10])
hold on
% Initially, the list of points is empty.
xy = [];
n = 0;
% Loop, picking up the points.
disp('Left mouse button picks points.')
disp('Right mouse button picks last point.')
but = 1;
while but == 1
[xi,yi,but] = ginput(1);
plot(xi,yi,'ro')
n = n+1;
xy(:,n) = [xi;yi];
end
% Interpolate with a spline curve and finer spacing.
t = 1:n;
ts = 1: 0.1: n;
xys = spline(t,xy,ts);
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% Plot the interpolated curve.

plot(xys(1,:),xys(2,:),'b-');
hold off

This plot shows some typical output:

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