MATLAB — An introduction to the world of Matrix Laboratory

Saurabh Singh
Sep 2, 2018 · 2 min read

Matlab is a high performance language for technical computing. It integrates computation,visualization and programming in an easy way to use environment where problems and solutions are expressed in familiar mathematical notation. MATLAB has many advantages over other methods or languages. Some of them are mentioned below-

Its basic data element is the matrix. A simple integer is considered as a matrix of one row and one column. Several mathematical operations that work on arrays or matrices are built-in to the Matlab environment. For example, cross-products, dot-products, determinants,inverse matrices.

Vectored operations. Adding two arrays together needs only one command, instead of a for or while loop.

The graphical output is optimized for interaction. You can plot your data easily,and then change colors, sizes, scales, etc, by using the graphical interactive tools.

Matlab’s functionality can be greatly expanded by the addition of toolboxes. These are set of specific functions that provided more specialized functionality. Ex: Excel link allows data to be written in a format recognized by Excel, Statistics Toolbox allows more specialized statistical manipulation of data.

As we know that nothing is perfect so it also have some disadvantages too-

It uses a large amount of memory and on slow computers it is very hard to use.

It sits “on top” of Windows, getting as much CPU time as Windows allows it to have. This makes real-time applications very complicated.

Matlab is not only a programming language, but a programming environment as well. You can perform operations from the command line, as a sophisticated calculator. Or you can create programs and functions that perform repetitive tasks, just as any other computer language.