Fundamentals

Access MATLAB

MATLAB is a licensed software developed by MathWorks, which means access typically requires a paid license.

For CSU Students

If you are a student at Colorado State University, you likely already have access through the university.

Follow the official CSU installation and access instructions here: 👉 https://www.engr.colostate.edu/ets/matlab/

General Access

If you are not affiliated with an institution that provides MATLAB, you will need to purchase a license or use a trial through MathWorks.

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Syntax

MATLAB syntax is designed to be simple and readable.

• A semicolon ; at the end of a line Suppresses Output in the Command Window
• Comments are written using the % symbol

% This line is a comment and will not run

disp("This line of code will run")

The disp function displays text or variable values in the Command Window.

Common Commands

Command	Description
disp	Displays text or variables
fprintf	Prints formatted text with variables
diary	Saves Command Window input/output to a file

Example using fprintf:

x = 10;
fprintf('The number ten in numeric format is %d\n', x);

• %d is a placeholder for integers
• \n creates a new line

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Data Types & Assigning Variables

MATLAB automatically assigns a data type when you create a variable.

Common Data Types

Data Type	Description
char	Single characters (e.g., 'a')
string	Text strings (e.g., "hello")
double	Default numeric type (floating-point)
single	Single-precision floating-point numbers
int	Integer types (e.g., int8, uint32)
datetime	Date and time values
array	Ordered collections of values

Example

charac = 'a';           % character
strVal = string(charac); % convert to string
x = 42;                 % numeric (double by default)

The ans Variable

If you don’t assign a result to a variable, MATLAB stores it in a default variable called ans.

5 + 8       % ans = 13
ans + 9     % returns 22

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Operators and Expressions

MATLAB supports arithmetic and comparison operators for calculations and logical evaluation.

Arithmetic Operators

Operator	Description
+	Addition
-	Subtraction
*	Multiplication
/	Division
mod(a,b)	Remainder (modulo)

Note: MATLAB uses the mod() function for remainders (not %).

modu = mod(17, 3);  % returns 2
disp(modu)

Comparison Operators

Operator	Description
<	Less than
>	Greater than
==	Equal to
<=	Less than or equal to
>=	Greater than or equal to
~=	Not equal to

Example:

A = 8;
B = 7;
combined = A + B;

bool = combined > 20;  % returns false

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Conditional Statements

Conditional statements allow you to control program flow based on logical conditions.

If Statements

condition = 10;

if condition < 0
    fprintf("This is a negative number\n");
elseif condition < 10
    fprintf("This is a positive number less than 10\n");
else
    fprintf("This is a positive number greater than or equal to 10\n");
end

Switch Statements

switch is useful when comparing a variable against multiple specific values.

num = 2;

switch num
    case 1
        fprintf("num is equal to 1\n");
    case 2
        fprintf("num is equal to 2\n");
    case 3
        fprintf("num is equal to 3\n");
    otherwise
        fprintf("This number is greater than 3\n");
end

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Next Steps

Now that you’ve learned the basics of MATLAB syntax, variables, and control flow, the next step is to explore:

• Importing and working with datasets
• Creating visualizations and plots
• Applying MATLAB to real-world engineering and research problems

These skills will help you move from basic scripting to practical data analysis and modeling.