Some MATLAB function descriptions
These lists are copied from the help screens for MATLAB Version 4.2c (dated Nov 23 1994). Only a few of the summaries are listed -- use Matlab's help function to see more.
>> help
HELP topics:
matlab/general -General purpose commands.
matlab/ops -Operators and special characters.
matlab/lang -Language constructs and debugging.
matlab/elmat -Elementary matrices and matrix manipulation.
matlab/specmat -Specialized matrices.
matlab/elfun -Elementary math functions.
matlab/specfun -Specialized math functions.
matlab/matfun -Matrix functions - numerical linear algebra.
matlab/datafun -Data analysis and Fourier transform functions.
matlab/polyfun -Polynomial and interpolation functions.
matlab/funfun -Function functions - nonlinear numerical methods.
matlab/sparfun -Sparse matrix functions.
matlab/plotxy -Two dimensional graphics.
matlab/plotxyz -Three dimensional graphics.
matlab/graphics -General purpose graphics functions.
matlab/color -Color control and lighting model functions.
matlab/sounds -Sound processing functions.
matlab/strfun -Character string functions.
matlab/iofun -Low-level file I/O functions.
matlab/demos -The MATLAB Expo and other demonstrations.
toolbox/chem -Chemometrics Toolbox
toolbox/control -Control System Toolbox.
fdident/fdident -Frequency Domain System Identification Toolbox
fdident/fddemos -Demonstrations for the FDIDENT Toolbox
toolbox/hispec -Hi-Spec Toolbox
toolbox/ident -System Identification Toolbox.
toolbox/images -Image Processing Toolbox.
toolbox/local -Local function library.
toolbox/mmle3 -MMLE3 Identification Toolbox.
mpc/mpccmds -Model Predictive Control Toolbox
mpc/mpcdemos -Model Predictive Control Toolbox
mutools/commands -Mu-Analysis and Synthesis Toolbox.: Commands directory
mutools/subs -Mu-Analysis and Synthesis Toolbox -- Supplement
toolbox/ncd -Nonlinear Control Design Toolbox.
nnet/nnet -Neural Network Toolbox.
nnet/nndemos -Neural Network Demonstrations and Applications.
toolbox/optim -Optimization Toolbox.
toolbox/robust -Robust Control Toolbox.
toolbox/signal -Signal Processing Toolbox.
toolbox/splines -Spline Toolbox.
toolbox/stats -Statistics Toolbox.
toolbox/symbolic -Symbolic Math Toolbox.
toolbox/wavbox - (No table of contents file)
simulink/simulink -SIMULINK model analysis and construction functions.
simulink/blocks -SIMULINK block library.
simulink/simdemos -SIMULINK demonstrations and samples.
toolbox/codegen -Real-Time Workshop
For more help on directory/topic, type "help topic".
>> help elmat
Elementary matrices and matrix manipulation.
Elementary matrices.
zeros - Zeros matrix.
ones - Ones matrix.
eye - Identity matrix.
rand - Uniformly distributed random numbers.
randn - Normally distributed random numbers.
linspace - Linearly spaced vector.
logspace - Logarithmically spaced vector.
meshgrid - X and Y arrays for 3-D plots.
: - Regularly spaced vector.
Special variables and constants.
ans - Most recent answer.
eps - Floating point relative accuracy.
realmax - Largest floating point number.
realmin - Smallest positive floating point number.
pi - 3.1415926535897....
i, j - Imaginary unit.
inf - Infinity.
NaN - Not-a-Number.
flops - Count of floating point operations.
nargin - Number of function input arguments.
nargout - Number of function output arguments.
computer - Computer type.
isieee - True for computers with IEEE arithmetic.
isstudent - True for the Student Edition.
why - Succinct answer.
version - MATLAB version number.
Time and dates.
clock - Wall clock.
cputime - Elapsed CPU time.
date - Calendar.
etime - Elapsed time function.
tic, toc - Stopwatch timer functions.
Matrix manipulation.
diag - Create or extract diagonals.
fliplr - Flip matrix in the left/right direction.
flipud - Flip matrix in the up/down direction.
reshape - Change size.
rot90 - Rotate matrix 90 degrees.
tril - Extract lower triangular part.
triu - Extract upper triangular part.
: - Index into matrix, rearrange matrix.
>> help specmat
Specialized matrices.
compan - Companion matrix.
gallery - Several small test matrices.
hadamard - Hadamard matrix.
hankel - Hankel matrix.
hilb - Hilbert matrix.
invhilb - Inverse Hilbert matrix.
kron - Kronecker tensor product.
magic - Magic square.
pascal - Pascal matrix.
rosser - Classic symmetric eigenvalue test problem.
toeplitz - Toeplitz matrix.
vander - Vandermonde matrix.
wilkinson - Wilkinson's eigenvalue test matrix.
>> help elfun
Elementary math functions.
Trigonometric.
sin - Sine.
sinh - Hyperbolic sine.
asin - Inverse sine.
asinh - Inverse hyperbolic sine.
cos - Cosine.
cosh - Hyperbolic cosine.
acos - Inverse cosine.
acosh - Inverse hyperbolic cosine.
tan - Tangent.
tanh - Hyperbolic tangent.
atan - Inverse tangent.
atan2 - Four quadrant inverse tangent.
atanh - Inverse hyperbolic tangent.
sec - Secant.
sech - Hyperbolic secant.
asec - Inverse secant.
asech - Inverse hyperbolic secant.
csc - Cosecant.
csch - Hyperbolic cosecant.
acsc - Inverse cosecant.
acsch - Inverse hyperbolic cosecant.
cot - Cotangent.
coth - Hyperbolic cotangent.
acot - Inverse cotangent.
acoth - Inverse hyperbolic cotangent.
Exponential.
exp - Exponential.
log - Natural logarithm.
log10 - Common logarithm.
sqrt - Square root.
Complex.
abs - Absolute value.
angle - Phase angle.
conj - Complex conjugate.
imag - Complex imaginary part.
real - Complex real part.
Numeric.
fix - Round towards zero.
floor - Round towards minus infinity.
ceil - Round towards plus infinity.
round - Round towards nearest integer.
rem - Remainder after division.
sign - Signum function.
>> help specfun
>> help specmat
Specialized matrices.
compan - Companion matrix.
gallery - Several small test matrices.
hadamard - Hadamard matrix.
hankel - Hankel matrix.
hilb - Hilbert matrix.
invhilb - Inverse Hilbert matrix.
kron - Kronecker tensor product.
magic - Magic square.
pascal - Pascal matrix.
rosser - Classic symmetric eigenvalue test problem.
toeplitz - Toeplitz matrix.
vander - Vandermonde matrix.
wilkinson - Wilkinson's eigenvalue test matrix.
>> help elfun
Elementary math functions.
Trigonometric.
sin - Sine.
sinh - Hyperbolic sine.
asin - Inverse sine.
asinh - Inverse hyperbolic sine.
cos - Cosine.
cosh - Hyperbolic cosine.
acos - Inverse cosine.
acosh - Inverse hyperbolic cosine.
tan - Tangent.
tanh - Hyperbolic tangent.
atan - Inverse tangent.
atan2 - Four quadrant inverse tangent.
atanh - Inverse hyperbolic tangent.
sec - Secant.
sech - Hyperbolic secant.
asec - Inverse secant.
asech - Inverse hyperbolic secant.
csc - Cosecant.
csch - Hyperbolic cosecant.
acsc - Inverse cosecant.
acsch - Inverse hyperbolic cosecant.
cot - Cotangent.
coth - Hyperbolic cotangent.
acot - Inverse cotangent.
acoth - Inverse hyperbolic cotangent.
Exponential.
exp - Exponential.
log - Natural logarithm.
log10 - Common logarithm.
sqrt - Square root.
Complex.
abs - Absolute value.
angle - Phase angle.
conj - Complex conjugate.
imag - Complex imaginary part.
real - Complex real part.
Numeric.
fix - Round towards zero.
floor - Round towards minus infinity.
ceil - Round towards plus infinity.
round - Round towards nearest integer.
rem - Remainder after division.
sign - Signum function.
>> help specfun
Specialized math functions.
besselj - Bessel function of the first kind.
bessely - Bessel function of the second kind.
besseli - Modified Bessel function of the first kind.
besselk - Modified Bessel function of the second kind.
beta - Beta function.
betainc - Incomplete beta function.
betaln - Logarithm of beta function.
elli石皮解 - Jacobi elliptic functions.
ellipke - Complete elliptic integral.
erf - Error function.
erfc - Complementary error function.
erfcx - Scaled complementary error function.
erfinv - Inverse error function.
expint - Exponential integral function.
gamma - Gamma function.
gcd - Greatest common divisor.
gammainc - Incomplete gamma function.
lcm - Least common multiple.
legendre - Associated Legendre function.
gammaln - Logarithm of gamma function.
log2 - Dissect floating point numbers.
pow2 - Scale floating point numbers.
rat - Rational approximation.
rats - Rational output.
cart2sph - Transform from Cartesian to spherical coordinates.
cart2pol - Transform from Cartesian to polar coordinates.
pol2cart - Transform from polar to Cartesian coordinates.
sph2cart - Transform from spherical to Cartesian coordinates.
>> help matfun
Matrix functions - numerical linear algebra.
Matrix analysis.
cond - Matrix condition number.
norm - Matrix or vector norm.
rcond - LINPACK reciprocal condition estimator.
rank - Number of linearly independent rows or columns.
det - Determinant.
trace - Sum of diagonal elements.
null - Null space.
orth - Orthogonalization.
rref - Reduced row echelon form.
Linear equations.
\ and / - Linear equation solution; use "help slash".
chol - Cholesky factorization.
lu - Factors from Gaussian elimination.
inv - Matrix inverse.
qr - Orthogonal-triangular decomposition.
qrdelete - Delete a column from the QR factorization.
qrinsert - Insert a column in the QR factorization.
nnls - Non-negative least-squares.
pinv - Pseudoinverse.
lscov - Least squares in the presence of known covariance.
Eigenvalues and singular values.
eig - Eigenvalues and eigenvectors.
poly - Characteristic polynomial.
polyeig - Polynomial eigenvalue problem.
hess - Hessenberg form.
qz - Generalized eigenvalues.
rsf2csf - Real block diagonal form to complex diagonal form.
cdf2rdf - Complex diagonal form to real block diagonal form.
schur - Schur decomposition.
balance - Diagonal scaling to improve eigenvalue accuracy.
svd - Singular value decomposition.
Matrix functions.
expm - Matrix exponential.
expm1 - M-file implementation of expm.
expm2 - Matrix exponential via Taylor series.
expm3 - Matrix exponential via eigenvalues and eigenvectors.
logm - Matrix logarithm.
sqrtm - Matrix square root.
funm - Evaluate general matrix function.
>> help general
General purpose commands.
MATLAB ToolboxVersion 4.2a 25-Jul-94
Managing commands and functions.
help - On-line documentation.
doc - Load hypertext documentation.
what - Directory listing of M-, MAT- and MEX-files.
type - List M-file.
lookfor - Keyword search through the HELP entries.
which - Locate functions and files.
demo - Run demos.
path - Control MATLAB's search path.
Managing variables and the workspace.
who - List current variables.
whos - List current variables, long form.
load - Retrieve variables from disk.
save - Save workspace variables to disk.
clear - Clear variables and functions from memory.
pack - Consolidate workspace memory.
size - Size of matrix.
length - Length of vector.
disp - Display matrix or text.
Working with files and the operating system.
cd - Change current working directory.
dir - Directory listing.
delete - Delete file.
getenv - Get environment value.
! - Execute operating system command.
unix - Execute operating system command & return result.
diary - Save text of MATLAB session.
Controlling the command window.
cedit - Set command line edit/recall facility parameters.
clc - Clear command window.
home - Send cursor home.
format - Set output format.
echo - Echo commands inside script files.
more - Control paged output in command window.
Starting and quitting from MATLAB.
quit - Terminate MATLAB.
startup - M-file executed when MATLAB is invoked.
matlabrc - Master startup M-file.
General information.
info - Information about MATLAB and The MathWorks, Inc.
subscribe - Become subscribing user of MATLAB.
hostid - MATLAB server host identification number.
whatsnew - Information about new features not yet documented.
ver - MATLAB, SIMULINK, and TOOLBOX version information.
>> help general
General purpose commands.
MATLAB ToolboxVersion 4.2a 25-Jul-94
Managing commands and functions.
help - On-line documentation.
doc - Load hypertext documentation.
what - Directory listing of M-, MAT- and MEX-files.
type - List M-file.
lookfor - Keyword search through the HELP entries.
which - Locate functions and files.
demo - Run demos.
path - Control MATLAB's search path.
Managing variables and the workspace.
who - List current variables.
whos - List current variables, long form.
load - Retrieve variables from disk.
save - Save workspace variables to disk.
clear - Clear variables and functions from memory.
pack - Consolidate workspace memory.
size - Size of matrix.
length - Length of vector.
disp - Display matrix or text.
Working with files and the operating system.
cd - Change current working directory.
dir - Directory listing.
delete - Delete file.
getenv - Get environment value.
! - Execute operating system command.
unix - Execute operating system command & return result.
diary - Save text of MATLAB session.
Controlling the command window.
cedit - Set command line edit/recall facility parameters.
clc - Clear command window.
home - Send cursor home.
format - Set output format.
echo - Echo commands inside script files.
more - Control paged output in command window.
Starting and quitting from MATLAB.
quit - Terminate MATLAB.
startup - M-file executed when MATLAB is invoked.
matlabrc - Master startup M-file.
General information.
info - Information about MATLAB and The MathWorks, Inc.
subscribe - Become subscribing user of MATLAB.
hostid - MATLAB server host identification number.
whatsnew - Information about new features not yet documented.
ver - MATLAB, SIMULINK, and TOOLBOX version information.
>> help funfun
Function functions - nonlinear numerical methods.
ode23 - Solve differential equations, low order method.
ode23p - Solve and plot solutions.
ode45 - Solve differential equations, high order method.
quad - Numerically evaluate integral, low order method.
quad8 - Numerically evaluate integral, high order method.
fmin - Minimize function of one variable.
fmins - Minimize function of several variables.
fzero - Find zero of function of one variable.
fplot - Plot function.
See also The Optimization Toolbox, which has a comprehensive
set of function functions for optimizing and minimizing functions.
>> help funfun
Function functions - nonlinear numerical methods.
ode23 - Solve differential equations, low order method.
ode23p - Solve and plot solutions.
ode45 - Solve differential equations, high order method.
quad - Numerically evaluate integral, low order method.
quad8 - Numerically evaluate integral, high order method.
fmin - Minimize function of one variable.
fmins - Minimize function of several variables.
fzero - Find zero of function of one variable.
fplot - Plot function.
See also The Optimization Toolbox, which has a comprehensive
set of function functions for optimizing and minimizing functions.
