Command Summary

This chapter lists MATLAB commands by functional area.

Managing Commands and Functions
addpath	Add directories to MATLAB's search path
doc	Load hypertext documentation
help	Online help for MATLAB functions and M-files
lasterr	Last error message
lookfor	Keyword search through all help entries
path	Control MATLAB's directory search path
profile	Measure and display M-file execution profiles
rmpath	Remove directories from MATLAB's search path
type	List file
version	MATLAB version number
what	Directory listing of M-files, MAT-files, and MEX-files
whatsnew	Display README files for MATLAB and toolboxes
which	Locate functions and files
Managing Variables and the Workspace
clear	Remove items from memory
disp	Display text or array
length	Length of vector
load	Retrieve variables from disk
pack	Consolidate workspace memory
save	Save workspace variables on disk
size	Array dimensions
who, whos	List directory of variables in memory
Controlling the Command Window
echo	Echo M-files during execution
format	Control the output display format
more	Control paged output for the command window
Working with Files and the Operating Environment
applescript	Load a compiled AppleScript from a file and execute it
cd	Change working directory
delete	Delete files and graphics objects
diary	Save session in a disk file
dir	Directory listing
edit	Edit an M-file
fullfile	Build full filename from parts
inmem	Functions in memory
matlabroot	Root directory of MATLAB installation
tempdir	Return the name of the system's temporary directory
tempname	Unique name for temporary file
!	Execute operating system command
Starting and Quitting MATLAB
matlabrc	MATLAB startup M-file
quit	Terminate MATLAB
startup	MATLAB startup M-file

Operators and Special Characters

+	Plus
-	Minus
*	Matrix multiplication
.*	Array multiplication
^	Matrix power
.^	Array power
kron	Kronecker tensor product
\	Backslash or left division
/	Slash or right division
./ and .\	Array division, right and left
:	Colon
( )	Parentheses
[ ]	Brackets
{}	Curly braces
.	Decimal point
...	Continuation
,	Comma
;	Semicolon
%	Comment
!	Exclamation point
'	Transpose and quote
.'	Nonconjugated transpose
=	Assignment
==	Equality
< >	Relational operators
&	Logical and
|	Logical or
~	Logical not
xor	Logical exclusive or

Logical Functions

all	Test to determine if all elements are nonzero
any	Test for any nonzeros
exist	Check if a variable or file exists
find	Find indices and values of nonzero elements
is*	Detect state
*isa	Detect an object of a given class
logical	Convert numeric values to logical

Language Constructs and Debugging

MATLAB as a Programming Language
builtin	Execute builtin function from overloaded method
eval	Interpret strings containing MATLAB expressions
feval	Function evaluation
function	Function M-files
global	Define global variables
nargchk	Check number of input arguments
script	Script M-files
Control Flow
break	Break out of flow control structures
case	Case switch
else	Conditionally execute statements
elseif	Conditionally execute statements
end	Terminate for, while, switch, and if statements or indicate last index
error	Display error messages
for	Repeat statements a specific number of times
if	Conditionally execute statements
otherwise	Default part of switch statement
return	Return to the invoking function
switch	Switch among several cases based on expression
warning	Display warning message
while	Repeat statements an indefinite number of times
Interactive Input
input	Request user input
keyboard	Invoke the keyboard in an M-file
menu	Generate a menu of choices for user input
pause	Halt execution temporarily
Object-Oriented Programming
class	Create object or return class of object
double	Convert to double precision
inferiorto	Inferior class relationship
inline	Construct an inline object
isa	Detect an object of a given class
superiorto	Superior class relationship
uint8	Convert to unsigned 8-bit integer
Debugging
dbclear	Clear breakpoints
dbcont	Resume execution
dbdown	Change local workspace context
dbmex	Enable MEX-file debugging
dbquit	Quit debug mode
dbstack	Display function call stack
dbstatus	List all breakpoints
dbstep	Execute one or more lines from a breakpoint
dbstop	Set breakpoints in an M-file function
dbtype	List M-file with line numbers
dbup	Change local workspace context

Elementary Matrices and Matrix Manipulation

Elementary Matrices and Arrays
eye	Identity matrix
linspace	Generate linearly spaced vectors
logspace	Generate logarithmically spaced vectors
ones	Create an array of all ones
rand	Uniformly distributed random numbers and arrays
randn	Normally distributed random numbers and arrays
zeros	Create an array of all zeros
: (colon)	Regularly spaced vector
Special Variables and Constants
ans	The most recent answer
computer	Identify the computer on which MATLAB is running
eps	Floating-point relative accuracy
flops	Count floating-point operations
i	Imaginary unit
Inf	Infinity
inputname	Input argument name
j	Imaginary unit
NaN	Not-a-Number
nargin, nargout	Number of function arguments
pi	Ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter,
realmax	Largest positive floating-point number
realmin	Smallest positive floating-point number
varargin, varargout	varargin, varargout
Time and Dates
calendar	Calendar
clock	Current time as a date vector
cputime	Elapsed CPU time
date	Current date string
datenum	Serial date number
datestr	Date string format
datevec	Date components
eomday	End of month
etime	Elapsed time
now	Current date and time
tic, toc	Stopwatch timer
weekday	Day of the week
Matrix Manipulation
cat	Concatenate arrays
diag	Diagonal matrices and diagonals of a matrix
fliplr	Flip matrices left-right
flipud	Flip matrices up-down
repmat	Replicate and tile an array
reshape	Reshape array
rot90	Rotate matrix 90 degrees
tril	Lower triangular part of a matrix
triu	Upper triangular part of a matrix
: (colon)	Index into array, rearrange array

Specialized Matrices

compan	Companion matrix
gallery	Test matrices
hadamard	Hadamard matrix
hankel	Hankel matrix
hilb	Hilbert matrix
invhilb	Inverse of the Hilbert matrix
magic	Magic square
pascal	Pascal matrix
toeplitz	Toeplitz matrix
wilkinson	Wilkinson's eigenvalue test matrix

Elementary Math Functions

abs	Absolute value and complex magnitude
acos, acosh	Inverse cosine and inverse hyperbolic cosine
acot, acoth	Inverse cotangent and inverse hyperbolic cotangent
acsc, acsch	Inverse cosecant and inverse hyperbolic cosecant
angle	angle Phase angle
asec, asech	Inverse secant and inverse hyperbolic secant
asin, asinh	Inverse sine and inverse hyperbolic sine
atan, atanh	Inverse tangent and inverse hyperbolic tangent
atan2	Four-quadrant inverse tangent
ceil	Round toward infinity
conj	Complex conjugate
cos, cosh	Cosine and hyperbolic cosine
cot, coth	Cotangent and hyperbolic cotangent
csc, csch	Cosecant and hyperbolic cosecant
exp	Exponential
fix	Round towards zero
floor	Round towards minus infinity
gcd	Greatest common divisor
imag	Imaginary part of a complex number
lcm	Least common multiple
log	Natural logarithm
log2	Base 2 logarithm and dissect floating-point numbers into exponent and
log10	Common (base 10) logarithm
mod	Modulus (signed remainder after division)
real	Real part of complex number
rem	Remainder after division
round	Round to nearest integer
sec, sech	Secant and hyperbolic secant
sign	Signum function
sin, sinh	Sine and hyperbolic sine
sqrt	Square root
tan, tanh	Tangent and hyperbolic tangent

Specialized Math Functions

airy	Airy functions
besselh	Bessel functions of the third kind (Hankel functions)
besseli, besselk
besselj, bessely
beta, betainc, betaln	beta, betainc, betaln
ellipj	Jacobi elliptic functions
ellipke	Complete elliptic integrals of the first and second kind
erf, erfc, erfcx, erfinv	erf, erfc, erfcx, erfinv
expint	Exponential integral
gamma, gammainc, gammaln	gamma, gammainc, gammaln
legendre	Associated Legendre functions
pow2	Base 2 power and scale floating-point numbers
rat, rats	Rational fraction approximation

Coordinate System Conversion

cart2pol	Transform Cartesian coordinates to polar or cylindrical
cart2sph	Transform Cartesian coordinates to spherical
pol2cart	Transform polar or cylindrical coordinates to Cartesian
sph2cart	Transform spherical coordinates to Cartesian

Matrix Functions - Numerical Linear Algebra

Matrix Analysis
cond	Condition number with respect to inversion
condeig	Condition number with respect to eigenvalues
det	Matrix determinant
norm	Vector and matrix norms
null	Null space of a matrix
orth	Range space of a matrix
rank	Rank of a matrix
rcond	Matrix reciprocal condition number estimate
rref, rrefmovie	rref, rrefmovie
subspace	Angle between two subspaces
trace	Sum of diagonal elements
Linear Equations
\ /	Linear equation solution
chol	Cholesky factorization
inv	Matrix inverse
lscov	Least squares solution in the presence of known covariance
lu	LU matrix factorization
nnls	Nonnegative least squares
pinv	Moore-Penrose pseudoinverse of a matrix
qr	Orthogonal-triangular decomposition
Eigenvalues and Singular Values
balance	Improve accuracy of computed eigenvalues
cdf2rdf	Convert complex diagonal form to real block diagonal form
eig	Eigenvalues and eigenvectors
hess	Hessenberg form of a matrix
poly	Polynomial with specified roots
qz	QZ factorization for generalized eigenvalues
rsf2csf	Convert real Schur form to complex Schur form
schur	Schur decomposition
svd	Singular value decomposition
Matrix Functions
expm	Matrix exponential
funm	Evaluate functions of a matrix
logm	Matrix logarithm
sqrtm	Matrix square root
Low Level Functions
qrdelete	Delete column from QR factorization
qrinsert	Insert column in QR factorization

Data Analysis and Fourier Transform Functions

Basic Operations
convhull	Convex hull
cumprod	Cumulative product
cumsum	Cumulative sum
cumtrapz	Cumulative trapezoidal numerical integration
delaunay	Delaunay triangulation
dsearch	Search for nearest point
factor	Prime factors
inpolygon	Detect points inside a polygonal region
max	Maximum elements of an array
mean	Average or mean value of arrays
median	Median value of arrays
min	Minimum elements of an array
perms	All possible permutations
polyarea	Area of polygon
primes	Generate list of prime numbers
prod	Product of array elements
sort	Sort elements in ascending order
sortrows	Sort rows in ascending order
std	Standard deviation
sum	Sum of array elements
trapz	Trapezoidal numerical integration
tsearch	Search for enclosing Delaunay triangle
voronoi	Voronoi diagram
Finite Differences
del2	Discrete Laplacian
diff	Differences and approximate derivatives
gradient	Numerical gradient
Correlation
corrcoef	Correlation coefficients
cov	Covariance matrix
Filtering and Convolution
conv	Convolution and polynomial multiplication
conv2	Two-dimensional convolution
deconv	Deconvolution and polynomial division
filter	Filter data with an infinite impulse response (IIR) or finite impulse response
filter2	Two-dimensional digital filtering
Fourier Transforms
abs	Absolute value and complex magnitude
angle	Phase angle
cplxpair	Sort complex numbers into complex conjugate pairs
fft	One-dimensional fast Fourier transform
fft2	Two-dimensional fast Fourier transform
fftshift	Move zero'th lag to center of spectrum.
ifft	Inverse one-dimensional fast Fourier transform
ifft2	Inverse two-dimensional fast Fourier transform
nextpow2	Next power of two
unwrap	Correct phase angles
Vector Functions
cross	Vector cross product
intersect	Set intersection of two vectors
ismember	Detect members of a set
setdiff	Return the set difference of two vectors
setxor	Set exclusive-or of two vectors
union	Set union of two vectors
unique	Unique elements of a vector

Polynomial and Interpolation Functions

Polynomials
conv	Convolution and polynomial multiplication
deconv	Deconvolution and polynomial division
poly	Polynomial with specified roots
polyder	Polynomial derivative
polyeig	Polynomial eigenvalue problem
polyfit	Polynomial curve fitting
polyval	Polynomial evaluation
polyvalm	Matrix polynomial evaluation
residue	Convert between partial fraction expansion and polynomial coefficients
roots	Polynomial roots
Data Interpolation
griddata	Data gridding
interp1	One-dimensional data interpolation (table lookup)
interp2	Two-dimensional data interpolation (table lookup)
interp3	Three-dimensional data interpolation (table lookup)
interpft	One-dimensional interpolation using the FFT method
interpn	Multidimensional data interpolation (table lookup)
meshgrid	Generate X and Y matrices for three-dimensional plots
ndgrid	Generate arrays for multidimensional functions and interpolation
spline	Cubic spline interpolation

Function Functions - Nonlinear Numerical Methods

dblquad	Numerical double integration
fmin	Minimize a function of one variable
fmins	Minimize a function of several variables
fzero	Zero of a function of one variable
ode45, ode23, ode113, ode15s, ode23s	ode45, ode23, ode113, ode15s, ode23s
odefile	Define a differential equation problem for ODE solvers
odeget	Extract properties from options structure created with odeset
odeset	Create or alter options structure for input to ODE solvers
quad, quad8	Numerical evaluation of integrals

Sparse Matrix Functions

Elementary Sparse Matrices
spdiags	Extract and create sparse band and diagonal matrices
speye	Sparse identity matrix
sprand	Sparse uniformly distributed random matrix
sprandn	Sparse normally distributed random matrix
sprandsym	Sparse symmetric random matrix
Full to Sparse Conversion
find	Find indices and values of nonzero elements
full	Convert sparse matrix to full matrix
sparse	Create sparse matrix
spconvert	Import matrix from sparse matrix external format
Working with Nonzero Entries of Sparse Matrices
nnz	Number of nonzero matrix elements
nonzeros	Nonzero matrix elements
nzmax	Amount of storage allocated for nonzero matrix elements
spalloc	Allocate space for sparse matrix
spfun	Apply function to nonzero sparse matrix elements
spones	Replace nonzero sparse matrix elements with ones
Visualizing Sparse Matrices
spy	Visualize sparsity pattern
Reordering Algorithms
colmmd	Sparse column minimum degree permutation
colperm	Sparse column permutation based on nonzero count
dmperm	Dulmage-Mendelsohn decomposition
randperm	Random permutation
symmmd	Sparse symmetric minimum degree ordering
symrcm	Sparse reverse Cuthill-McKee ordering
Norm, Condition Number, and Rank
condest	1-norm matrix condition number estimate
normest	2-norm estimate
Sparse Systems of Linear Equations
bicg	BiConjugate Gradients method
bicgstab	BiConjugate Gradients Stabilized method
cgs	Conjugate Gradients Squared method
cholinc	Incomplete Cholesky factorizations
gmres	Generalized Minimum Residual method (with restarts)
luinc	Incomplete LU matrix factorizations
pcg	Preconditioned Conjugate Gradients method
qmr	Quasi-Minimal Residual method
Sparse Eigenvalues and Singular Values
eigs	Find a few eigenvalues and eigenvectors
svds	A few singular values
Miscellaneous
spparms	Set parameters for sparse matrix routines

Sound Processing Functions

General Sound Functions
sound	Convert vector into sound
SPARCstation-specific Sound Functions
auread	Read NeXT/SUN (.au) sound file
auwrite	Write NeXT/SUN (.au) sound file
.WAV Sound Functions
wavread	Read Microsoft WAVE (.wav) sound file
wavwrite	Write Microsoft WAVE (.wav) sound file

Character String Functions

General
abs	Absolute value and complex magnitude
eval	Interpret strings containing MATLAB expressions
real	Real part of complex number
strings	MATLAB string handling
String Manipulation
deblank	Strip trailing blanks from the end of a string
findstr	Find one string within another
lower	Convert string to lower case
strcat	String concatenation
strcmp	Compare strings
strjust	Justify a character array
strmatch	Find possible matches for a string
strncmp	Compare the first n characters of two strings
strrep	String search and replace
strtok	First token in string
strvcat	Vertical concatenation of strings
upper	Convert string to upper case
String to Number Conversion
char	Create character array (string)
int2str	Integer to string conversion
mat2str	Convert a matrix into a string
num2str	Number to string conversion
sprintf	Write formatted data to a string
sscanf	Read string under format control
str2num	String to number conversion
Radix Conversion
bin2dec	Binary to decimal number conversion
dec2bin	Decimal to binary number conversion
dec2hex	Decimal to hexadecimal number conversion
hex2dec	IEEE hexadecimal to decimal number conversion
hex2num	Hexadecimal to double number conversion

Low-Level File I/O Functions

File Opening and Closing
fclose	Close one or more open files
fopen	Open a file or obtain information about open files
Unformatted I/O
fread	Read binary data from file
fwrite	Write binary data to a file
Formatted I/O
fgetl	Return the next line of a file as a string without line terminator(s)
fgets	Return the next line of a file as a string with line terminator(s)
fprintf	Write formatted data to file
fscanf	Read formatted data from file
File Positioning
feof	Test for end-of-file
ferror	Query MATLAB about errors in file input or output
frewind	Rewind an open file
fseek	Set file position indicator
ftell	Get file position indicator
String Conversion
sprintf	Write formatted data to a string
sscanf	Read string under format control
Specialized File I/O
dlmread	Read an ASCII delimited file into a matrix
dlmwrite	Write a matrix to an ASCII delimited file
imfinfo	Return information about a graphics file
imread	Read image from graphics file
imwrite	Write an image to a graphics file
wk1read	Read a Lotus123 WK1 spreadsheet file into a matrix
wk1write	Write a matrix to a Lotus123 WK1 spreadsheet file

Bitwise Functions

bitand	Bit-wise AND
bitcmp	Complement bits
bitor	Bit-wise OR
bitmax	Maximum floating-point integer
bitset	Set bit
bitshift	Bit-wise shift
bitget	Get bit
bitxor	Bit-wise XOR

Structure Functions

fieldnames	Field names of a structure
getfield	Get field of structure array
rmfield	Remove structure fields
setfield	Set field of structure array
struct	Create structure array
struct2cell	Structure to cell array conversion

Object Functions

class	Create object or return class of object
isa	Detect an object of a given class

Cell Array Functions

cell	Create cell array
cellstr	Create cell array of strings from character array
cell2struct	Cell array to structure array conversion
celldisp	Display cell array contents.
cellplot	Graphically display the structure of cell arrays
num2cell	Convert a numeric array into a cell array

Multidimensional Array Functions

cat	Concatenate arrays
flipdim	Flip array along a specified dimension
ind2sub	Subscripts from linear index
ipermute	Inverse permute the dimensions of a multidimensional array
ndgrid	Generate arrays for multidimensional functions and interpolation
ndims	Number of array dimensions
permute	Rearrange the dimensions of a multidimensional array
reshape	Reshape array
shiftdim	Shift dimensions
squeeze	Remove singleton dimensions
sub2ind	Single index from subscripts

Graphics Functions

Color Operations and Lighting
brighten	Brighten or darken color map
caxis	Pseudocolor axis scaling
colorbar	Display color bar (color scale)
colordef	Set up color defaults
colormap	Set the color look-up table
contrast	Gray color map to enhance image contrast
graymon	Graphics figure defaults set for gray-scale monitor
hsv2rgb	Hue-saturation-value to red-green-blue conversion
lighting	Lighting mode
material	Material reflectance mode
rgb2hsv	RGB to HSVconversion
rgbplot	Plot color map
shading	Color shading mode
spinmap	Spin the colormap
surfnorm	3-D surface normals
whitebg	Change axes background color for plots
Basic Plots and Graphs
bar	Vertical bar chart
barh	Horizontal bar chart
hist	Plot histograms
hold	Hold current graph
loglog	Plot using log-log scales
pie	Pie plot
plot	Plot vectors or matrices.
polar	Polar coordinate plot
semilogx	Semi-log scale plot
semilogy	Semi-log scale plot
subplot	Create axes in tiled positions
Hardcopy/File Output
orient	Hardcopy paper orientation
print	Print graph or save graph to file
printopt	Configure local printer defaults
Surface, Mesh, and Contour Plots
contour	Contour (level curves) plot.
contourc	Contour computation
contourf	Filled contour plot
hidden	Mesh hidden line removal mode
meshc	Combination mesh/contourplot
mesh	3-D mesh with reference plane
surf	3-D shaded surface graph
surface	Create surface low-level objects
surfc	Combination surf/contourplot
surfl	3-D shaded surface with lighting
trimesh	Triangular mesh plot
trisurf	Triangular surface plot
Domain Generation for Function Visualization
griddata	Data gridding and surface fitting
meshgrid	Generation of X and Y arrays for 3-D plots
Specialized Plotting
area	Area plot
box	Axis box for 2-D and 3-D plots
comet	Comet plot
compass	Compass plot
errorbar	Plot graph with error bars
ezplot	Easy to use function plotter
feather	Feather plot
fill	Draw filled 2-D polygons
fplot	Plot a function
pareto	Pareto chart
pie3	3-D Pie plot
plotmatrix	Scatter plot matrix
pcolor	Pseudocolor (checkerboard) plot
rose	Plot rose or angle histogram
quiver	Quiver (or velocity) plot
ribbon	Ribbon plot
stairs	Stairstep graph
stem	Plot discrete sequence data
Three-Dimensional Plotting
bar3	Vertical 3-D bar chart
bar3h	Horizontal 3-D bar chart
comet3	3-D Comet plot
cylinder	Generate cylinder
fill3	Draw filled 3-D polygons in 3-space
plot3	Plot lines and points in 3-D space
quiver3	3-D Quiver (or velocity) plot
slice	Volumetric slice plot
sphere	Generate sphere
stem3	Plot discrete surface data
view	3-D graph viewpoint specification.
viewmtx	Generate view transformation matrices
waterfall	Waterfall plot
Plot Annotation and Grids
clabel	Add contour labels to a contour plot
datetick	Date formatted tick labels
grid	Grid lines for 2-D and 3-D plots
gtext	Place text on a 2-D graph using a mouse
legend	Graph legend for lines and patches
plotyy	Plot graphs with Y tick labels on the left and right
title	Titles for 2-D and 3-D plots
xlabel	X-axis labels for 2-D and 3-D plots
ylabel	Y-axis labels for 2-D and 3-D plots
zlabel	Z-axis labels for 3-D plots
Handle Graphics, General
copyobj	Make a copy of a graphics object and its children
findobj	Find objects with specified property values
gcbo	Return object whose callback is currently executing
gco	Return handle of current object
get	Get object properties
rotate	Rotate objects about specified origin and direction
ishandle	True for graphics objects
set	Set object properties
Handle Graphics, Object Creation
axes	Create axis at arbitrary positions
figure	Create Figures (graph windows)
image	Display image (create image object)
light	Create light object
line	Create line low-level objects
patch	Create patch low-level objects
text	Add text to the current plot
Handle Graphics, Figure Windows
capture	Screen capture of the current figure
clc	Clear figure window
clf	Clear Figure
close	Close specified window
gcf	Get current figure handle
newplot	Graphics M-file preamble for NextPlot property
refresh	Refresh figure
Handle Graphics, Axes
axis	Plot axis scaling and appearance
cla	Clear axis
gca	Get current axis handle
Object Manipulation
reset	Reset axis or figure
rotate3d	Interactively rotate the view of a 3-D plot
selectmoveresize	Interactively select, move, or resize objects
Graphical User Interface Creation
dialog	Create a dialog box
errordlg	Create error dialog box
helpdlg	Display help dialog box
inputdlg	Create input dialog
menu	Generate a menu of choices for user input
msgbox	Create message dialog box
questdlg	Create question dialog box
textwrap	Return wrapped string matrix for given UI Control
uicontrol	Create user interface control
uigetfile	Display dialog box to retrieve name of file for reading
uimenu	Create user interface menu
uiputfile	Display dialog box to retrieve name of file for writing
uiresume	Used with uiwait, controls program execution
uisetcolor	Interactively set a ColorSpec via a dialog box
uisetfont	Interactively set a font by displaying a dialog box
uiwait	Used with uiresume, controls program execution
waitbar	Display wait bar
waitforbuttonpress	Wait for key/buttonpress over figure
warndlg	Create warning dialog box
Interactive User Input
ginput	Graphical input from a mouse or cursor
zoom	Zoom in and out on a 2-D plot
Region of Interest
dragrect	Drag XOR rectangles with mouse
drawnow	Complete any pending drawing
rbbox	Rubberband box
Micellaneous Graphics Commands
convhull	Convex hull
delaunay	Delaunay triangulation
dsearch	Search Delaunay triangulation for nearest point
inpolygon	True for points inside a polygonal region
polyarea	Area of polygon
tsearch	Search for enclosing Delaunay triangle
voronoi	Voronoi diagram