Programming and Data Types :: Function Reference (MATLAB®)

Data Types	Numeric, character, structures, cell arrays, and data type conversion
Data Type Conversion	Convert one numeric type to another, numeric to string, string to numeric, structure to cell array, etc.
Operators and Special Characters	Arithmetic, relational, and logical operators, and special characters
Strings	Create, identify, manipulate, parse, evaluate, and compare strings
Bit-Wise Operations	Perform set, shift, and, or, compare, etc. on specific bit fields
Logical Operations	Evaluate conditions, testing for true or false
Relational Operations	Compare values for equality, greater than, less than, etc.
Set Operations	Find set members, unions, intersections, etc.
Date and Time Operations	Obtain information about dates and times
Programming in MATLAB	Function/expression evaluation, timed execution, memory, program control, error handling, MEX programming

Data Types

Numeric Types	Integer and floating-point data
Characters and Strings	Characters and arrays of characters
Structures	Data of varying types and sizes stored in fields of a structure
Cell Arrays	Data of varying types and sizes stored in cells of array
Map Container Objects	Select elements of Map container using indices of various data types
Function Handles	Invoke a function indirectly via handle
Java Classes and Objects	Access Java classes through MATLAB interface
Data Type Identification	Determine data type of a variable

Numeric Types

arrayfun	Apply function to each element of array
cast	Cast variable to different data type
cat	Concatenate arrays along specified dimension
class	Determine class of object
find	Find indices and values of nonzero elements
intmax	Largest value of specified integer type
intmin	Smallest value of specified integer type
ipermute	Inverse permute dimensions of N-D array
isa	Determine whether input is object of given class
isequal	Test arrays for equality
isequalwithequalnans	Test arrays for equality, treating NaNs as equal
isfinite	Array elements that are finite
isinf	Array elements that are infinite
isnan	Array elements that are NaN
isnumeric	Determine whether input is numeric array
isreal	Check if input is real array
permute	Rearrange dimensions of N-D array
realmax	Largest positive floating-point number
realmin	Smallest positive normalized floating-point number
reshape	Reshape array
squeeze	Remove singleton dimensions
zeros	Create array of all zeros

Characters and Strings

See Strings for all string-related functions.

cellstr	Create cell array of strings from character array
char	Convert to character array (string)
eval	Execute string containing MATLAB expression
findstr	Find string within another, longer string
isstr	Determine whether input is character array
sprintf	Format data into string
sscanf	Read formatted data from string
strcat	Concatenate strings horizontally
strfind	Find one string within another
strings	String handling
strjust	Justify character array
strmatch	Find possible matches for string
strread	Read formatted data from string
strrep	Find and replace substring
strtrim	Remove leading and trailing white space from string
strvcat	Concatenate strings vertically

Structures

arrayfun	Apply function to each element of array
cell2struct	Convert cell array to structure array
class	Determine class of object
deal	Distribute inputs to outputs
fieldnames	Field names of structure, or public fields of object
getfield	Field of structure array
isa	Determine whether input is object of given class
isequal	Test arrays for equality
isfield	Determine whether input is structure array field
isstruct	Determine whether input is structure array
orderfields	Order fields of structure array
rmfield	Remove fields from structure
setfield	Assign values to structure array field
struct	Create structure array
struct2cell	Convert structure to cell array
structfun	Apply function to each field of scalar structure

Cell Arrays

cell	Create cell array
cell2mat	Convert cell array to numeric array
cell2struct	Convert cell array to structure array
celldisp	Cell array contents
cellfun	Apply function to each cell in cell array
cellplot	Graphically display structure of cell array
cellstr	Create cell array of strings from character array
class	Determine class of object
deal	Distribute inputs to outputs
isa	Determine whether input is object of given class
iscell	Determine whether input is cell array
iscellstr	Determine whether input is cell array of strings
isequal	Test arrays for equality
mat2cell	Convert array to cell array with potentially different sized cells
num2cell	Convert array to cell array with consistently sized cells
struct2cell	Convert structure to cell array

Map Container Objects

containers.Map	Map values to unique keys
isKey (containers.Map)	Determine if `containers.Map` object contains key
keys (containers.Map)	Identify keys of `containers.Map` object
length (containers.Map)	Length of `containers.Map` object
remove (containers.Map)	Remove key-value pairs from `containers.Map` object
size (containers.Map)	Size of `containers.Map` object
values (containers.Map)	Identify values in `containers.Map` object

Function Handles

class	Determine class of object
feval	Evaluate function
func2str	Construct function name string from function handle
function_handle (@)	Handle used in calling functions indirectly
functions	Information about function handle
isa	Determine whether input is object of given class
isequal	Test arrays for equality
str2func	Construct function handle from function name string

Java Classes and Objects

cell	Create cell array
class	Determine class of object
clear	Remove items from workspace, freeing up system memory
depfun	List dependencies of function or P-file
exist	Check existence of variable, function, folder, or class
fieldnames	Field names of structure, or public fields of object
im2java	Convert image to Java image
import	Add package or class to current import list
inmem	Names of functions, MEX-files, Sun Java classes in memory
isa	Determine whether input is object of given class
isjava	Determine whether input is Sun Java object
javaaddpath	Add entries to dynamic Java class path
javaArray	Construct Java array
javachk	Generate error message based on Java feature support
javaclasspath	Get and set Java class path
javaMethod	Invoke Sun Java method
javaMethodEDT	Invoke Java method from Event Dispatch Thread (EDT)
javaObject	Invoke Sun Java constructor
javaObjectEDT	Java object constructor on Event Dispatch Thread (EDT)
javarmpath	Remove entries from dynamic Java class path
methods	Class method names
methodsview	View class methods
usejava	Determine whether Sun Java feature is supported in MATLAB software
which	Locate functions and files

Data Type Identification

is*	Detect state
isa	Determine whether input is object of given class
iscell	Determine whether input is cell array
iscellstr	Determine whether input is cell array of strings
ischar	Determine whether item is character array
isfield	Determine whether input is structure array field
isfloat	Determine whether input is floating-point array
ishghandle	True for Handle Graphics object handles
isinteger	Determine whether input is integer array
isjava	Determine whether input is Sun Java object
islogical	Determine whether input is logical array
isnumeric	Determine whether input is numeric array
isobject	Is input MATLAB object
isreal	Check if input is real array
isstr	Determine whether input is character array
isstruct	Determine whether input is structure array
validateattributes	Check validity of array
who	List variables in workspace
whos	List variables in workspace, with sizes and types

Data Type Conversion

Numeric	Convert data of one numeric type to another numeric type
String to Numeric	Convert characters to numeric equivalent
Numeric to String	Convert numeric to character equivalent
Other Conversions	Convert to structure, cell array, function handle, etc.

Numeric

cast	Cast variable to different data type
double	Convert to double precision
int16	Convert to 16-bit signed integer
int32	Convert to 32-bit signed integer
int64	Convert to 64-bit signed integer
int8	Convert to 8-bit signed integer
single	Convert to single precision
typecast	Convert data types without changing underlying data
uint16	Convert to 16-bit unsigned integer
uint32	Convert to 32-bit unsigned integer
uint64	Convert to 64-bit unsigned integer
uint8	Convert to 8-bit unsigned integer

String to Numeric

base2dec	Convert base N number string to decimal number
bin2dec	Convert binary number string to decimal number
cast	Cast variable to different data type
hex2dec	Convert hexadecimal number string to decimal number
hex2num	Convert hexadecimal number string to double-precision number
str2double	Convert string to double-precision value
str2num	Convert string to number
unicode2native	Convert Unicode characters to numeric bytes

Numeric to String

cast	Cast variable to different data type
char	Convert to character array (string)
dec2base	Convert decimal to base N number in string
dec2bin	Convert decimal to binary number in string
dec2hex	Convert decimal to hexadecimal number in string
int2str	Convert integer to string
mat2str	Convert matrix to string
native2unicode	Convert numeric bytes to Unicode characters
num2str	Convert number to string

Other Conversions

cell2mat	Convert cell array to numeric array
cell2struct	Convert cell array to structure array
datestr	Convert date and time to string format
func2str	Construct function name string from function handle
logical	Convert numeric values to logical
mat2cell	Convert array to cell array with potentially different sized cells
num2cell	Convert array to cell array with consistently sized cells
num2hex	Convert singles and doubles to IEEE hexadecimal strings
str2func	Construct function handle from function name string
str2mat	Form blank-padded character matrix from strings
struct2cell	Convert structure to cell array

Operators and Special Characters

Arithmetic Operators	Plus, minus, power, left and right divide, transpose, etc.
Relational Operators	Equal to, greater than, less than or equal to, etc.
Logical Operators	Element-wise and short circuit and, or, not
Special Characters	Array constructors, line continuation, comments, etc.

Arithmetic Operators

Arithmetic Operators + - * / \ ^ '

Matrix and array arithmetic

+	Plus
-	Minus
.	Decimal point
=	Assignment
*	Matrix multiplication
/	Matrix right division
\	Matrix left division
^	Matrix power
'	Matrix transpose
.*	Array multiplication (element-wise)
./	Array right division (element-wise)
.\	Array left division (element-wise)
.^	Array power (element-wise)
.'	Array transpose

Relational Operators

Relational Operators < > <= >= == ~=

Relational operations

<	Less than
<=	Less than or equal to
>	Greater than
>=	Greater than or equal to
==	Equal to
~=	Not equal to

Logical Operators

See also Logical Operations for functions like xor, all, any, etc.

&&	Logical AND
\|\|	Logical OR
&	Logical AND for arrays
\|	Logical OR for arrays
~	Logical NOT

Special Characters

Special Characters [ ] ( ) {} = ' . ... , ; : % ! @

Special characters

:	Create vectors, subscript arrays, specify for-loop iterations
( )	Pass function arguments, prioritize operators
[ ]	Construct array, concatenate elements, specify multiple outputs from function
{ }	Construct cell array, index into cell array
.	Insert decimal point, define structure field, reference methods of object
.( )	Reference dynamic field of structure
..	Reference parent directory
...	Continue statement to next line
,	Separate rows of array, separate function input/output arguments, separate commands
;	Separate columns of array, suppress output from current command
%	Insert comment line into code
%{ %}	Insert block of comments into code
!	Issue command to operating system
' '	Construct character array
@	Construct function handle, reference class directory

Strings

Description of Strings in MATLAB	Basics of string handling in MATLAB
String Creation	Create strings, cell arrays of strings, concatenate strings together
String Identification	Identify characteristics of strings
String Manipulation	Convert case, strip blanks, replace characters
String Parsing	Formatted read, regular expressions, locate substrings
String Evaluation	Evaluate stated expression in string
String Comparison	Compare contents of strings

Description of Strings in MATLAB

strings

String handling

String Creation

blanks	Create string of blank characters
cellstr	Create cell array of strings from character array
char	Convert to character array (string)
sprintf	Format data into string
strcat	Concatenate strings horizontally
strvcat	Concatenate strings vertically

String Identification

isa	Determine whether input is object of given class
iscellstr	Determine whether input is cell array of strings
ischar	Determine whether item is character array
isletter	Array elements that are alphabetic letters
isspace	Array elements that are space characters
isstrprop	Determine whether string is of specified category
validatestring	Check validity of text string

String Manipulation

deblank	Strip trailing blanks from end of string
lower	Convert string to lowercase
strjust	Justify character array
strrep	Find and replace substring
strtrim	Remove leading and trailing white space from string
upper	Convert string to uppercase

String Parsing

findstr	Find string within another, longer string
regexprep	Replace string using regular expression
regexptranslate	Translate string into regular expression
sscanf	Read formatted data from string
strfind	Find one string within another
strread	Read formatted data from string
strtok	Selected parts of string

String Evaluation

eval	Execute string containing MATLAB expression
evalc	Evaluate MATLAB expression with capture
evalin	Execute MATLAB expression in specified workspace

String Comparison

strmatch

Find possible matches for string

Bit-Wise Operations

bitand	Bit-wise AND
bitcmp	Bitwise complement
bitget	Bit at specified position
bitmax	Maximum double-precision floating-point integer
bitor	Bit-wise OR
bitset	Set bit at specified position
bitshift	Shift bits specified number of places
bitxor	Bit-wise XOR
swapbytes	Swap byte ordering

Logical Operations

all	Determine whether all array elements are nonzero or `true`
and	Find logical AND of array or scalar inputs
any	Determine whether any array elements are nonzero
false	Logical 0 (false)
find	Find indices and values of nonzero elements
isa	Determine whether input is object of given class
iskeyword	Determine whether input is MATLAB keyword
isvarname	Determine whether input is valid variable name
logical	Convert numeric values to logical
not	Find logical NOT of array or scalar input
or	Find logical OR of array or scalar inputs
true	Logical 1 (true)
xor	Logical exclusive-OR

See Operators and Special Characters for logical operators.

Relational Operations

eq	Test for equality
ge	Test for greater than or equal to
gt	Test for greater than
le	Test for less than or equal to
lt	Test for less than
ne	Test for inequality

See Operators and Special Characters for relational operators.

Set Operations

intersect	Find set intersection of two vectors
ismember	Array elements that are members of set
issorted	Determine whether set elements are in sorted order
setdiff	Find set difference of two vectors
setxor	Find set exclusive OR of two vectors
union	Find set union of two vectors
unique	Find unique elements of vector

Date and Time Operations

addtodate	Modify date number by field
calendar	Calendar for specified month
clock	Current time as date vector
cputime	Elapsed CPU time
date	Current date string
datenum	Convert date and time to serial date number
datestr	Convert date and time to string format
datevec	Convert date and time to vector of components
eomday	Last day of month
etime	Time elapsed between date vectors
now	Current date and time
weekday	Day of week

Programming in MATLAB

Functions and Scripts	Write and execute program code, interact with caller, check input and output values, dependencies
Evaluation	Evaluate expression in string, apply function to array, run script file, etc.
Timer	Schedule execution of MATLAB commands
Variables and Functions in Memory	List, lock, or clear functions in memory, construct variable names, consolidate workspaces, refresh caches
Control Flow	Conditional control, loop control, error control, program termination
Error Handling	Generate warnings and errors, test for and catch errors, capture data on cause of error, warning control
MEX Programming	Compile MEX function from C or Fortran code, list MEX-files in memory, debug MEX-files

Functions and Scripts

addOptional (inputParser)	Add optional argument to Input Parser scheme
addParamValue (inputParser)	Add parameter name/value argument to Input Parser scheme
addRequired (inputParser)	Add required argument to Input Parser scheme
createCopy (inputParser)	Create copy of `inputParser` object
depdir	List dependent folders for function or P-file
depfun	List dependencies of function or P-file
echo	Display statements during function execution
end	Terminate block of code, or indicate last array index
function	Declare function
input	Request user input
inputname	Variable name of function input
inputParser	Construct input parser object
mfilename	File name of currently running function
namelengthmax	Maximum identifier length
nargchk	Validate number of input arguments
nargin	Number of function input arguments
narginchk	Validate number of input arguments
nargout	Number of function output arguments
nargoutchk	Validate number of output arguments
onCleanup	Cleanup tasks at function completion
parse (inputParser)	Parse and validate named inputs
pcode	Create protected function file
script	Sequence of MATLAB statements in file
syntax	Two ways to call MATLAB functions
varargin	Variable length input argument list
varargout	Variable length output argument list

Evaluation

ans	Most recent answer
arrayfun	Apply function to each element of array
assert	Generate error when condition is violated
builtin	Execute built-in function from overloaded method
cellfun	Apply function to each cell in cell array
echo	Display statements during function execution
eval	Execute string containing MATLAB expression
evalc	Evaluate MATLAB expression with capture
evalin	Execute MATLAB expression in specified workspace
feval	Evaluate function
iskeyword	Determine whether input is MATLAB keyword
isvarname	Determine whether input is valid variable name
pause	Halt execution temporarily
run	Run script that is not on current path
script	Sequence of MATLAB statements in file
structfun	Apply function to each field of scalar structure
symvar	Determine symbolic variables in expression
tic	Start clock to measure performance
toc	Stop clock to measure performance

Timer

delete (timer)	Remove timer object from memory
disp (timer)	Information about timer object
get (timer)	Timer object properties
isvalid (timer)	Determine whether timer object is valid
set (timer)	Configure or display timer object properties
start	Start timer(s) running
startat	Start timer(s) running at specified time
stop	Stop timer(s)
timer	Construct timer object
timerfind	Find timer objects
timerfindall	Find timer objects, including invisible objects
wait	Wait until timer stops running

Variables and Functions in Memory

ans	Most recent answer
assignin	Assign value to variable in specified workspace
clearvars	Clear variables from memory
datatipinfo	Produce short description of input variable
genvarname	Construct valid variable name from string
global	Declare global variables
inmem	Names of functions, MEX-files, Sun Java classes in memory
isglobal	Determine whether input is global variable
memory	Display memory information
mislocked	Determine if function is locked in memory
mlock	Prevent clearing function from memory
munlock	Allow clearing functions from memory
namelengthmax	Maximum identifier length
pack	Consolidate workspace memory
persistent	Define persistent variable
rehash	Refresh function and file system path caches

Control Flow

break	Terminate execution of `for` or `while` loop
continue	Pass control to next iteration of `for` or `while` loop
end	Terminate block of code, or indicate last array index
error	Display message and abort function
for	Execute statements specified number of times
if/elseif/else	Execute statements if condition is true
parfor	Parallel for loop
return	Return to invoking function
switch/case/otherwise	Switch among several cases based on expression
try/catch	Execute statements and catch resulting errors
while	Repeatedly execute statements while condition is true

Error Handling

addCause (MException)	Record additional causes of exception
assert	Generate error when condition is violated
disp (MException)	Display `MException` object
eq (MException)	Compare scalar `MException` objects for equality
error	Display message and abort function
ferror	Information about file I/O errors
getReport (MException)	Get error message for exception
isequal (MException)	Compare scalar `MException` objects for equality
last (MException)	Last uncaught exception
lastwarn	Last warning message
MException	Capture error information
ne (MException)	Compare scalar `MException` objects for inequality
rethrow	Reissue error
rethrow (MException)	Reissue existing exception
throw (MException)	Issue exception and terminate function
throwAsCaller (MException)	Throw exception as if from calling function
try/catch	Execute statements and catch resulting errors
warning	Warning message

MEX Programming

dbmex	Enable MEX-file debugging (on UNIX platforms)
inmem	Names of functions, MEX-files, Sun Java classes in memory
mex	Compile MEX-function from C/C++ or Fortran source code
mex.getCompilerConfigurations	Get compiler configuration information for building MEX-files
mexext	Binary MEX-file name extension

Data Analysis

Object-Oriented Programming

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