Vectors in Matlab: Basic Operations

I will define a vector here as being a matrix with either a single column and many rows or a single row and many columns.

The following are two vectors

vectors-in-matlab

Now that we are settled on what a vector is, let’s look how to manipulate vectors using Matlab.

Vectors in Matlab

Create a vector in Matlab

How do you really create a vector in Matlab? We have learned lately how to create matrices and manipulate them in Matlab. Playing with vectors is similar. It goes like this:

If we would like the create the A and B vectors above, here is how we will go about it

The code

A=[5,25,1,0,11,32]% The comma can be replace by a space 
B=[4;1;1;7;8]

Find the largest component of a vector

To find the largest element of A and B, use the following code

max(A)
max(B)

which returns

vectors-in-matlab

We can use this to find the largest element of a vector. Assume you have a vector with a thousand elements and can not go through each them to check which one is the largest, this function will take the pain off your shoulder.

Find the smallest component

As the preceding function, we would use

min(A)
min(B)

Find the length of a vector

The length of a vector will tell you the number of elements the vector has. To find the length of a vector, use

length(A)
length(B)

which returns

vectors-in-matlab

Sort in ascending order

We have learned the use of this function in Matlab in detailed in this post.

Sum elements of a vector

The sum function will simply sum all elements of a vector

vectors-in-matlab

The code

sum(A)

which returns

vectors-in-matlab

Find the mean value

The mean value formula is the following

vectors-in-matlab

This can also be written like this

vectors-in-matlab

To find the mean value of the vector A, use the following code

mean(A)

which returns

vectors-in-matlab

Find the standard deviation

To find the standard deviation, use the following code

std(A)

which returns

vectors-in-matlab

Find the median value of a vector

The median of a vector is nothing but the number separating the higher half from the lower half. So the median of B with be 1, while the median of A will be 8.

vectors-in-matlab

To find the median value of the vector A, use the following code

median(A)

Which returns

vectors-in-matlab

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