MATLAB Built-in Functions

Several functions are built into MATLAB.

Contents

Numeric Functions

Most built-in functions operate on numeric arrays by applying the function element-wise. These include:

Name	Meaning	Notes
`abs(x)`	absolute value
`ceil(x)`	round toward positive infinity
`exp(x)`	exponentiation
`factorial(x)`	factorial
`fix(x)`	round toward 0
`floor(x)`	round toward negative infinity
`log(x)`	natural logarithm
`log10(x)`	base-10 logarithm
`max(x)`	maximum	optionally return index of maximum as well: `[m,i]=max(x)`
`min(x)`	minimum	optionally return index of minimum as well: `[m,i]=min(x)`
`mod(x,d)`	modulo of x divided by d
`nthroot(x,n)`	nth root of x
`round(x)`	round to integer
`sqrt(x)`	square root

Name	Meaning
`sin`	sine
`cos`	cosine
`tan`	tangent
`cot`	cotangent
`sec`	secant
`csc`	cosecant
`asin`	inverse sine
`acos`	inverse cosine
`atan`	inverse tangent
`acot`	inverse cotangent
`asec`	inverse secant
`acsc`	inverse cosecant
`sinh`	hyperbolic sine
`cosh`	hyperbolic cosine
`tanh`	hyperbolic tangent
`coth`	hyperbolic cotangent
`sech`	hyperbolic secant
`csch`	hyperbolic cosecant
`asinh`	inverse hyperbolic sine
`acosh`	inverse hyperbolic cosine
`atanh`	inverse hyperbolic tangent
`acoth`	inverse hyperbolic cotangent
`asech`	inverse hyperbolic secant
`acsch`	inverse hyperbolic cosecant

Name	Meaning
`linspace(a,b,n)`	row vector of `n` evenly-spaced elements starting at `a` and ending in `b`

These functions operate on a string array and return a string scalar:

Name	Meaning
`join(s)`	join the elements of string matrix `s`
`join(s,d)`	join the elements of string matrix `s` using delimiter `d`

These functions return a matrix:

Name	Meaning
`diag(v)`	diagonal matrix from vector `v`
`eye(n)`	n x n identity matrix
`ones(n)`	n x n matrix of 1s
`ones(r,c)`	r x c matrix of 1s
`rand(n)`	n x n matrix of random numbers
`rand(r,c)`	r x c matrix of random numbers
`zeros(n)`	n x n matrix of 0s
`zeros(r,c)`	r x c matrix of 0s

These functions operate on a matrix:

Name	Meaning
`diag(m)`	diagonal vector from matrix `m`
`size(m)`	array of dimensions

To demonstrate how the size function can be used:

>> A = [12 62 93 -8];
>> sz = size(A)

sz = 1×2

     1     4
>> B = zeros(size(A))

B = 1x4

       0    0    0    0