MATLAB - Commands

MATLAB is an interactive program for numerical computation and data visualization. You can enter a command by typing it at the MATLAB prompt '>>' on the Command Window.
In this section, we will provide lists of commonly used general MATLAB commands.

Commands for Managing a Session

MATLAB provides various commands for managing a session. The following table provides all such commands −

Command	Purpose
clc	Clears command window.
clear	Removes variables from memory.
exist	Checks for existence of file or variable.
global	Declares variables to be global.
help	Searches for a help topic.
lookfor	Searches help entries for a keyword.
quit	Stops MATLAB.
who	Lists current variables.
whos	Lists current variables (long display).

Commands for Working with the System

MATLAB provides various useful commands for working with the system, like saving the current work in the workspace as a file and loading the file later.
It also provides various commands for other system-related activities like, displaying date, listing files in the directory, displaying current directory, etc.
The following table displays some commonly used system-related commands −

Command	Purpose
cd	Changes current directory.
date	Displays current date.
delete	Deletes a file.
diary	Switches on/off diary file recording.
dir	Lists all files in current directory.
load	Loads workspace variables from a file.
path	Displays search path.
pwd	Displays current directory.
save	Saves workspace variables in a file.
type	Displays contents of a file.
what	Lists all MATLAB files in the current directory.
wklread	Reads .wk1 spreadsheet file.

Input and Output Commands

MATLAB provides the following input and output related commands −

Command	Purpose
disp	Displays contents of an array or string.
fscanf	Read formatted data from a file.
format	Controls screen-display format.
fprintf	Performs formatted writes to screen or file.
input	Displays prompts and waits for input.
;	Suppresses screen printing.

The fscanf and fprintf commands behave like C scanf and printf functions. They support the following format codes −

Format Code	Purpose
%s	Format as a string.
%d	Format as an integer.
%f	Format as a floating point value.
%e	Format as a floating point value in scientific notation.
%g	Format in the most compact form: %f or %e.
\n	Insert a new line in the output string.
\t	Insert a tab in the output string.

The format function has the following forms used for numeric display −

Format Function	Display up to
format short	Four decimal digits (default).
format long	16 decimal digits.
format short e	Five digits plus exponent.
format long e	16 digits plus exponents.
format bank	Two decimal digits.
format +	Positive, negative, or zero.
format rat	Rational approximation.
format compact	Suppresses some line feeds.
format loose	Resets to less compact display mode.

Vector, Matrix and Array Commands

The following table shows various commands used for working with arrays, matrices and vectors −

Command	Purpose
cat	Concatenates arrays.
find	Finds indices of nonzero elements.
length	Computes number of elements.
linspace	Creates regularly spaced vector.
logspace	Creates logarithmically spaced vector.
max	Returns largest element.
min	Returns smallest element.
prod	Product of each column.
reshape	Changes size.
size	Computes array size.
sort	Sorts each column.
sum	Sums each column.
eye	Creates an identity matrix.
ones	Creates an array of ones.
zeros	Creates an array of zeros.
cross	Computes matrix cross products.
dot	Computes matrix dot products.
det	Computes determinant of an array.
inv	Computes inverse of a matrix.
pinv	Computes pseudoinverse of a matrix.
rank	Computes rank of a matrix.
rref	Computes reduced row echelon form.
cell	Creates cell array.
celldisp	Displays cell array.
cellplot	Displays graphical representation of cell array.
num2cell	Converts numeric array to cell array.
deal	Matches input and output lists.
iscell	Identifies cell array.

Plotting Commands

MATLAB provides numerous commands for plotting graphs. The following table shows some of the commonly used commands for plotting −

Command	Purpose
axis	Sets axis limits.
fplot	Intelligent plotting of functions.
grid	Displays gridlines.
plot	Generates xy plot.
print	Prints plot or saves plot to a file.
title	Puts text at top of plot.
xlabel	Adds text label to x-axis.
ylabel	Adds text label to y-axis.
axes	Creates axes objects.
close	Closes the current plot.
close all	Closes all plots.
figure	Opens a new figure window.
gtext	Enables label placement by mouse.
hold	Freezes current plot.
legend	Legend placement by mouse.
refresh	Redraws current figure window.
set	Specifies properties of objects such as axes.
subplot	Creates plots in subwindows.
text	Places string in figure.
bar	Creates bar chart.
loglog	Creates log-log plot.
polar	Creates polar plot.
semilogx	Creates semilog plot. (logarithmic abscissa).
semilogy	Creates semilog plot. (logarithmic ordinate).
stairs	Creates stairs plot.
stem	Creates stem plot.