MATLAB Programming Language: An Overview

11 Sep 2018 6107 share it:

With increasing popularity and use of computer software and innovations, students are now opting to pursue a degree course in different programming languages. One such computer language that has attracted scholars in recent times and garnered immense popularity is MATLAB. If you are also a beginner who is enrolled in an educational program of MATLAB, then take a look at a brief guide to this programming language:

What Is MATLAB?

MATLAB or Matrix Laboratory is a complete programming environment and propriety programming language that is developed by MathWorks. We all have seen pie charts and graphs that depict population samples, to analyze this massive amount of data, various techniques are used to create a visual representation, and one of them is MATLAB. It integrates computation and programming in an easy-to-use environment to solve problems and express them in familiar mathematical notation. It allows:

• Modeling, simulation, and prototyping
• Creation of user interfaces
• Modeling and simulating data
• Math and computation
• Application development
• Implementation of algorithms
• Matrix manipulations
• Plotting of functions and data
• Computation of numeric data
• Interfacing with programs written in other languages, such as C, C#, C++, Fortran, Java, and Python

What Makes MATLAB Useful for Programmers?

You already read about some of the functions that MATLAB allows its programmers to carry out. Now, our MATLAB assignment help providers have listed a few uses of this programming language in detail:

• It is best suitable for performing matrix operations which is useful for control system analysis and image operations.
• MATLAB is also quick to develop codes because its ecosystem consists of libraries, such as signal analysis, computer vision, GUI tools. This helps to save the time of installing and configuring new ones to perform different tasks. As soon as the developers get the idea, they can try it via the vast functionality of these libraries.
• The credit for the quick development time in MATLAB is also shared by its ability to write precise code. The 10-20 lines of C++ code can be easily replicated in 1-2 lines through MATLAB codes.
• Another positive feature of MATLAB is its extensive documentation and a large user base. Mathworks maintains extensive documentation on full-fledged examples and individual functions. If you are trying to solve any task, then there are chances that it has already been answered and uploaded by users at Mathworks File Exchange.
• Last, MATLAB is excellent at its plotting functions and offers various ways to display data visually. Most of them are user-friendly and can configure the plots according to you very quickly.

What Are the Components of MATLAB?

MATLAB has five main components that have been discussed below:

The MATLAB language

A high-level matrix/array language that has control flow statements, data structures, input/output, functions, and object-oriented programming features. This enables users to create quick throw-away programs complete large & complicated application programs.

The MATLAB working environment

It is the set of tools and facilities that MATLAB users or programmers work with. There are facilities to manage workplace variables and importing/exporting data. It also consists of tools for debugging, developing, profiling M-files and managing MATLAB's applications.

Handle Graphics

The MATLAB graphics system has high-level commands for two and three-dimensional image processing, data visualization, presentation graphics, and animation. You can also customize the appearance of graphics by using low-level commands and can build complete Graphical User Interfaces.

The MATLAB mathematical function library

A collection of computational algorithms comprises elementary functions (sum, cosine, sine, and complex arithmetic) and sophisticated functions (matrix inverse, Bessel functions, matrix eigenvalues, and fast Fourier transforms).

The MATLAB Application Program Interface (API)

Through this library, you can write FORTRAN and C programs to interact with MATLAB. The facilities include calling MATLAB as a computational engine, calling routines from MATLAB (dynamic linking), reading and writing MAT-files.

We are sure that this blog will give you an insight into MATLAB programming language and help you understand it better. If you have any doubts, then you can go through books and online journals regarding MATLAB.