Units Conversion Toolbox

This toolbox attaches units to Matlab variables and enables unit conversion.
3.7K Downloads
Updated 25 Jan 2012

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Editor's Note: This file was selected as MATLAB Central Pick of the Week

Have you ever needed to convert horse power to watts but can't remember the conversion factor? How many inches light travels in a microsecond? This toolbox is designed to make getting these answers much easier.

The "unit" statement attaches units to a variable. For example,
>> x=unit(2,'yards')

x =
1.8288 m

returns the answer in International (SI) units. If you would rather have you answer in feet it can be converted to feet by

>> convert(x,'feet')

ans =
6 feet

Variables created by the "unit" statement can operated on by these operators:

Unary plus, Unary minus, +,-,*,.*,/,\,./,.\,^,.^,',.'
and sqrt

Variables are also supported by triginometric,hyperbolic, and exponential functions and can be compared by

==, ~=, >, <, >=, and <=

Special plotting routines are available for plotting variables with units. These are:

plot, semilogx, semilogy, and loglog

The toolbox appears in the html help screens and has "GettingStarted', "User Guide", and function help screens.

Just down load the tool box to the directory of you choice and set the Matlab path to include this directory. To verify operation, type

>> unit('yards')

ans =
0.9144 m

If you get this result, you are all set!

Cite As

John McDermid (2024). Units Conversion Toolbox (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/29621-units-conversion-toolbox), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved .

MATLAB Release Compatibility
Created with R2010b
Compatible with any release
Platform Compatibility
Windows macOS Linux
Categories
Find more on Numeric Types in Help Center and MATLAB Answers

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Version Published Release Notes
1.5.0.0

This update corrects the addition and subtraction of dimensionless quantities (previously reported an error) and also corrects the definition of a weber.

1.4.0.0

I made an omission on the last submission and no file (or the old file) was attached. This is the correct file!

1.3.0.0

This update was submitted and approved but did not end up in Matlab Central. Instead, the old one was there.

1.1.0.0

This program has been updated to resolve a problem that appeared in R2011b.
R2011B used "Units" as a built in function in a toolbox and does not check to see if you have the toolbox before throwing an error. "Units" has been renamed to "unit".

1.0.0.0