This is a list of functions available in Matlab , which should be taken as a quick reminder of the most basic tools available. See the Matlab help screens and excerpts from those screens reprinted in section Some MATLAB function descriptions. In any case, your version of Matlab may vary slightly.

intro < chol end function lu quit sprintf
help > clc eps global macro qz sqrt
demo = clear error grid magic rand startup
[ & clg eval hess max rcond string
] | clock exist hold memory real subplot
( ~ conj exit home mesh relop sum
) abs contour exp ident meta rem svd
. all cos expm if min return tan
, ans cumprod eye imag nan round text
; any cumsum feval inf nargin save title
% acos delete fft input norm schur type
! asin det filter inv ones script what
: atan diag find isnan pack semilogx while
' atan2 diary finite keyboard pause semilogy who
+ axis dir fix load pi setstr xlabel
- balance disp floor log plot shg ylabel
* break echo flops loglog polar sign zeros
\ casesen eig for logop prod sin
/ ceil else format ltifr prtsc size
^ chdir elseif fprintf ltitr qr sort


acosh demo hankel membrane print table1
angle demolist hds menu quad table2
asinh dft hilb meshdemo quaddemo tanh
atanh diff hist meshdom quadstep tek
bar eigmovie histogram mkpp rank tek4100
bench ergo hp2647 movies rat terminal
bessel etime humps nademo ratmovie toeplitz
bessela expm1 idft nelder readme trace
besselh expm2 ieee neldstep residue translate
besseln expm3 ifft nnls retro tril
blanks feval ifft2 null roots triu
cdf2rdf fft2 info num2str rot90 unmkpp
census fftshift inquire ode23 rratref vdpol
citoh fitdemo int2str ode45 rratrefmovie versa
cla fitfun invhilb odedemo rref vt100
compan flipx isempty orth rsf2csf vt240
computer flipy kron pinv sc2dc why
cond funm length plotdemo sg100 wow
conv gallery log10 poly sg200 xterm
conv2 gamma logm polyfit sinh zerodemo
corr getenv logspace polyline spline zeroin
cosh ginput matdemo polymark sqrtm
ctheorem gpp matlab polyval square
dc2sc graphon mean polyvalm std
deconv hadamard median ppval sun


addtwopi buttap cov fftdemo freqz kaiser specplot
bartlett butter decimate filtdemo fstab numf spectrum
bilinear chebap denf fir1 hamming readme2 triang
blackman chebwin detrend fir2 hanning remez xcorr
boxcar cheby eqnerr2 freqs interp remezdd xcorr2
yulewalk


Some MATLAB function descriptions
use Matlab's help function to see more.

>> help


HELP topics:

matlab/general - General purpose commands.
matlab/ops - Operators and special characters.
matlab/lang - Language constructs and debugging.
matlab/elmat - Elementary matrices and matrix manipulation.
matlab/specmat - Specialized matrices.
matlab/elfun - Elementary math functions.
matlab/specfun - Specialized math functions.
matlab/matfun - Matrix functions - numerical linear algebra.
matlab/datafun - Data analysis and Fourier transform functions.
matlab/polyfun - Polynomial and interpolation functions.
matlab/funfun - Function functions - nonlinear numerical methods.
matlab/sparfun - Sparse matrix functions.
matlab/plotxy - Two dimensional graphics.
matlab/plotxyz - Three dimensional graphics.
matlab/graphics - General purpose graphics functions.
matlab/color - Color control and lighting model functions.
matlab/sounds - Sound processing functions.
matlab/strfun - Character string functions.
matlab/iofun - Low-level file I/O functions.
matlab/demos - The MATLAB Expo and other demonstrations.
toolbox/chem - Chemometrics Toolbox
toolbox/control - Control System Toolbox.
fdident/fdident - Frequency Domain System Identification Toolbox
fdident/fddemos - Demonstrations for the FDIDENT Toolbox
toolbox/hispec - Hi-Spec Toolbox
toolbox/ident - System Identification Toolbox.
toolbox/images - Image Processing Toolbox.
toolbox/local - Local function library.
toolbox/mmle3 - MMLE3 Identification Toolbox.
mpc/mpccmds - Model Predictive Control Toolbox
mpc/mpcdemos - Model Predictive Control Toolbox
mutools/commands - Mu-Analysis and Synthesis Toolbox.: Commands directory
mutools/subs - Mu-Analysis and Synthesis Toolbox -- Supplement
toolbox/ncd - Nonlinear Control Design Toolbox.
nnet/nnet - Neural Network Toolbox.
nnet/nndemos - Neural Network Demonstrations and Applications.
toolbox/optim - Optimization Toolbox.
toolbox/robust - Robust Control Toolbox.
toolbox/signal - Signal Processing Toolbox.
toolbox/splines - Spline Toolbox.
toolbox/stats - Statistics Toolbox.
toolbox/symbolic - Symbolic Math Toolbox.
toolbox/wavbox - (No table of contents file)
simulink/simulink - SIMULINK model analysis and construction functions.
simulink/blocks - SIMULINK block library.
simulink/simdemos - SIMULINK demonstrations and samples.
toolbox/codegen - Real-Time Workshop

For more help on directory/topic, type "help topic".


>> help elmat

Elementary matrices and matrix manipulation.

Elementary matrices.
zeros - Zeros matrix.
ones - Ones matrix.
eye - Identity matrix.
rand - Uniformly distributed random numbers.
randn - Normally distributed random numbers.
linspace - Linearly spaced vector.
logspace - Logarithmically spaced vector.
meshgrid - X and Y arrays for 3-D plots.
: - Regularly spaced vector.

Special variables and constants.
ans - Most recent answer.
eps - Floating point relative accuracy.
realmax - Largest floating point number.
realmin - Smallest positive floating point number.
pi - 3.1415926535897....
i, j - Imaginary unit.
inf - Infinity.
NaN - Not-a-Number.
flops - Count of floating point operations.
nargin - Number of function input arguments.
nargout - Number of function output arguments.
computer - Computer type.
isieee - True for computers with IEEE arithmetic.
isstudent - True for the Student Edition.
why - Succinct answer.
version - MATLAB version number.

Time and dates.
clock - Wall clock.
cputime - Elapsed CPU time.
date - Calendar.
etime - Elapsed time function.
tic, toc - Stopwatch timer functions.

Matrix manipulation.
diag - Create or extract diagonals.
fliplr - Flip matrix in the left/right direction.
flipud - Flip matrix in the up/down direction.
reshape - Change size.
rot90 - Rotate matrix 90 degrees.
tril - Extract lower triangular part.
triu - Extract upper triangular part.
: - Index into matrix, rearrange matrix.


>> help specmat

Specialized matrices.

compan - Companion matrix.
gallery - Several small test matrices.
hadamard - Hadamard matrix.
hankel - Hankel matrix.
hilb - Hilbert matrix.
invhilb - Inverse Hilbert matrix.
kron - Kronecker tensor product.
magic - Magic square.
pascal - Pascal matrix.
rosser - Classic symmetric eigenvalue test problem.
toeplitz - Toeplitz matrix.
vander - Vandermonde matrix.
wilkinson - Wilkinson's eigenvalue test matrix.


>> help elfun

Elementary math functions.

Trigonometric.
sin - Sine.
sinh - Hyperbolic sine.
asin - Inverse sine.
asinh - Inverse hyperbolic sine.
cos - Cosine.
cosh - Hyperbolic cosine.
acos - Inverse cosine.
acosh - Inverse hyperbolic cosine.
tan - Tangent.
tanh - Hyperbolic tangent.
atan - Inverse tangent.
atan2 - Four quadrant inverse tangent.
atanh - Inverse hyperbolic tangent.
sec - Secant.
sech - Hyperbolic secant.
asec - Inverse secant.
asech - Inverse hyperbolic secant.
csc - Cosecant.
csch - Hyperbolic cosecant.
acsc - Inverse cosecant.
acsch - Inverse hyperbolic cosecant.
cot - Cotangent.
coth - Hyperbolic cotangent.
acot - Inverse cotangent.
acoth - Inverse hyperbolic cotangent.

Exponential.
exp - Exponential.
log - Natural logarithm.
log10 - Common logarithm.
sqrt - Square root.

Complex.
abs - Absolute value.
angle - Phase angle.
conj - Complex conjugate.
imag - Complex imaginary part.
real - Complex real part.

Numeric.
fix - Round towards zero.
floor - Round towards minus infinity.
ceil - Round towards plus infinity.
round - Round towards nearest integer.
rem - Remainder after division.
sign - Signum function.


>> help specfun

Specialized math functions.

besselj - Bessel function of the first kind.
bessely - Bessel function of the second kind.
besseli - Modified Bessel function of the first kind.
besselk - Modified Bessel function of the second kind.
beta - Beta function.
betainc - Incomplete beta function.
betaln - Logarithm of beta function.
ellipj - Jacobi elliptic functions.
ellipke - Complete elliptic integral.
erf - Error function.
erfc - Complementary error function.
erfcx - Scaled complementary error function.
erfinv - Inverse error function.
expint - Exponential integral function.
gamma - Gamma function.
gcd - Greatest common divisor.
gammainc - Incomplete gamma function.
lcm - Least common multiple.
legendre - Associated Legendre function.
gammaln - Logarithm of gamma function.
log2 - Dissect floating point numbers.
pow2 - Scale floating point numbers.
rat - Rational approximation.
rats - Rational output.
cart2sph - Transform from Cartesian to spherical coordinates.
cart2pol - Transform from Cartesian to polar coordinates.
pol2cart - Transform from polar to Cartesian coordinates.
sph2cart - Transform from spherical to Cartesian coordinates.


>> help matfun

Matrix functions - numerical linear algebra.

Matrix analysis.
cond - Matrix condition number.
norm - Matrix or vector norm.
rcond - LINPACK reciprocal condition estimator.
rank - Number of linearly independent rows or columns.
det - Determinant.
trace - Sum of diagonal elements.
null - Null space.
orth - Orthogonalization.
rref - Reduced row echelon form.

Linear equations.
\ and / - Linear equation solution; use "help slash".
chol - Cholesky factorization.
lu - Factors from Gaussian elimination.
inv - Matrix inverse.
qr - Orthogonal-triangular decomposition.
qrdelete - Delete a column from the QR factorization.
qrinsert - Insert a column in the QR factorization.
nnls - Non-negative least-squares.
pinv - Pseudoinverse.
lscov - Least squares in the presence of known covariance.

Eigenvalues and singular values.
eig - Eigenvalues and eigenvectors.
poly - Characteristic polynomial.
polyeig - Polynomial eigenvalue problem.
hess - Hessenberg form.
qz - Generalized eigenvalues.
rsf2csf - Real block diagonal form to complex diagonal form.
cdf2rdf - Complex diagonal form to real block diagonal form.
schur - Schur decomposition.
balance - Diagonal scaling to improve eigenvalue accuracy.
svd - Singular value decomposition.

Matrix functions.
expm - Matrix exponential.
expm1 - M-file implementation of expm.
expm2 - Matrix exponential via Taylor series.
expm3 - Matrix exponential via eigenvalues and eigenvectors.
logm - Matrix logarithm.
sqrtm - Matrix square root.
funm - Evaluate general matrix function.


>> help general

General purpose commands.
MATLAB Toolbox Version 4.2a 25-Jul-94

Managing commands and functions.
help - On-line documentation.
doc - Load hypertext documentation.
what - Directory listing of M-, MAT- and MEX-files.
type - List M-file.
lookfor - Keyword search through the HELP entries.
which - Locate functions and files.
demo - Run demos.
path - Control MATLAB's search path.

Managing variables and the workspace.
who - List current variables.
whos - List current variables, long form.
load - Retrieve variables from disk.
save - Save workspace variables to disk.
clear - Clear variables and functions from memory.
pack - Consolidate workspace memory.
size - Size of matrix.
length - Length of vector.
disp - Display matrix or text.

Working with files and the operating system.
cd - Change current working directory.
dir - Directory listing.
delete - Delete file.
getenv - Get environment value.
! - Execute operating system command.
unix - Execute operating system command & return result.
diary - Save text of MATLAB session.

Controlling the command window.
cedit - Set command line edit/recall facility parameters.
clc - Clear command window.
home - Send cursor home.
format - Set output format.
echo - Echo commands inside script files.
more - Control paged output in command window.

Starting and quitting from MATLAB.
quit - Terminate MATLAB.
startup - M-file executed when MATLAB is invoked.
matlabrc - Master startup M-file.

General information.
info - Information about MATLAB and The MathWorks, Inc.
subscribe - Become subscribing user of MATLAB.
hostid - MATLAB server host identification number.
whatsnew - Information about new features not yet documented.
ver - MATLAB, SIMULINK, and TOOLBOX version information.


>> help funfun

Function functions - nonlinear numerical methods.

ode23 - Solve differential equations, low order method.
ode23p - Solve and plot solutions.
ode45 - Solve differential equations, high order method.
quad - Numerically evaluate integral, low order method.
quad8 - Numerically evaluate integral, high order method.
fmin - Minimize function of one variable.
fmins - Minimize function of several variables.
fzero - Find zero of function of one variable.
fplot - Plot function.

See also The Optimization Toolbox, which has a comprehensive
set of function functions for optimizing and minimizing functions.


>> help polyfun

Polynomial and interpolation functions.

Polynomials.
roots - Find polynomial roots.
poly - Construct polynomial with specified roots.
polyval - Evaluate polynomial.
polyvalm - Evaluate polynomial with matrix argument.
residue - Partial-fraction expansion (residues).
polyfit - Fit polynomial to data.
polyder - Differentiate polynomial.
conv - Multiply polynomials.
deconv - Divide polynomials.

Data interpolation.
interp1 - 1-D interpolation (1-D table lookup).
interp2 - 2-D interpolation (2-D table lookup).
interpft - 1-D interpolation using FFT method.
griddata - Data gridding.

Spline interpolation.
spline - Cubic spline data interpolation.
ppval - Evaluate piecewise polynomial.


>> help ops

Operators and special characters.

Char Name HELP topic

+ Plus arith
- Minus arith
* Matrix multiplication arith
.* Array multiplication arith
^ Matrix power arith
.^ Array power arith

\ Backslash or left division slash
/ Slash or right division slash
./ Array division slash
kron Kronecker tensor product kron

: Colon colon

( ) Parentheses paren
[ ] Brackets paren

. Decimal point punct
.. Parent directory punct
... Continuation punct
, Comma punct
; Semicolon punct
% Comment punct
! Exclamation point punct
' Transpose and quote punct
= Assignment punct

== Equality relop
<,> Relational operators relop
& Logical AND relop
| Logical OR relop
~ Logical NOT relop
xor Logical EXCLUSIVE OR xor

Logical characteristics.
exist - Check if variables or functions are defined.
any - True if any element of vector is true.
all - True if all elements of vector are true.
find - Find indices of non-zero elements.
isnan - True for Not-A-Number.
isinf - True for infinite elements.
finite - True for finite elements.
isempty - True for empty matrix.
isreal - True for real matrix.
issparse - True for sparse matrix.
isstr - True for text string.
isglobal - True for global variables.


>> help lang

Language constructs and debugging.

MATLAB as a programming language.
script - About MATLAB scripts and M-files.
function - Add new function.
eval - Execute string with MATLAB expression.
feval - Execute function specified by string.
global - Define global variable.
nargchk - Validate number of input arguments.
lasterr - Last error message.

Control flow.
if - Conditionally execute statements.
else - Used with IF.
elseif - Used with IF.
end - Terminate the scope of FOR, WHILE and IF statements.
for - Repeat statements a specific number of times.
while - Repeat statements an indefinite number of times.
break - Terminate execution of loop.
return - Return to invoking function.
error - Display message and abort function.

Interactive input.
input - Prompt for user input.
keyboard - Invoke keyboard as if it were a Script-file.
menu - Generate menu of choices for user input.
pause - Wait for user response.
uimenu - Create user interface menu.
uicontrol - Create user interface control.

Debugging commands.
dbstop - Set breakpoint.
dbclear - Remove breakpoint.
dbcont - Resume execution.
dbdown - Change local workspace context.
dbstack - List who called whom.
dbstatus - List all breakpoints.
dbstep - Execute one or more lines.
dbtype - List M-file with line numbers.
dbup - Change local workspace context.
dbquit - Quit debug mode.
mexdebug - Debug MEX-files.


>> help plotxy
Two dimensional graphics.

Elementary X-Y graphs.
plot - Linear plot.
loglog - Log-log scale plot.
semilogx - Semi-log scale plot.
semilogy - Semi-log scale plot.
fill - Draw filled 2-D polygons.

Specialized X-Y graphs.
polar - Polar coordinate plot.
bar - Bar graph.
stem - Discrete sequence or "stem" plot.
stairs - Stairstep plot.
errorbar - Error bar plot.
hist - Histogram plot.
rose - Angle histogram plot.
compass - Compass plot.
feather - Feather plot.
fplot - Plot function.
comet - Comet-like trajectory.

Graph annotation.
title - Graph title.
xlabel - X-axis label.
ylabel - Y-axis label.
text - Text annotation.
gtext - Mouse placement of text.
grid - Grid lines.

See also PLOTXYZ, GRAPHICS.


>> help plotxyz

Three dimensional graphics.

Line and area fill commands.
plot3 - Plot lines and points in 3-D space.
fill3 - Draw filled 3-D polygons in 3-D space.
comet3 - 3-D comet-like trajectories.

Contour and other 2-D plots of 3-D data.
contour - Contour plot.
contour3 - 3-D contour plot.
clabel - Contour plot elevation labels.
contourc - Contour plot computation (used by contour).
pcolor - Pseudocolor (checkerboard) plot.
quiver - Quiver plot.

Surface and mesh plots.
mesh - 3-D mesh surface.
meshc - Combination mesh/contour plot.
meshz - 3-D Mesh with zero plane.
surf - 3-D shaded surface.
surfc - Combination surf/contour plot.
surfl - 3-D shaded surface with lighting.
waterfall - Waterfall plot.

Volume visualization.
slice - Volumetric visualization plots.

Graph appearance.
view - 3-D graph viewpoint specification.
viewmtx - View transformation matrices.
hidden - Mesh hidden line removal mode.
shading - Color shading mode.
axis - Axis scaling and appearance.
caxis - Pseudocolor axis scaling.
colormap - Color look-up table.

Graph annotation.
title - Graph title.
xlabel - X-axis label.
ylabel - Y-axis label.
zlabel - Z-axis label for 3-D plots.
text - Text annotation.
gtext - Mouse placement of text.
grid - Grid lines.

3-D objects.
cylinder - Generate cylinder.
sphere - Generate sphere.

See also COLOR, PLOTXY, GRAPHICS.


>> help strfun

Character string functions.

General.
strings - About character strings in MATLAB.
abs - Convert string to numeric values.
setstr - Convert numeric values to string.
isstr - True for string.
blanks - String of blanks.
deblank - Remove trailing blanks.
str2mat - Form text matrix from individual strings.
eval - Execute string with MATLAB expression.

String comparison.
strcmp - Compare strings.
findstr - Find one string within another.
upper - Convert string to uppercase.
lower - Convert string to lowercase.
isletter - True for letters of the alphabet.
isspace - True for white space characters.
strrep - Replace a string with another.
strtok - Find a token in a string.

String to number conversion.
num2str - Convert number to string.
int2str - Convert integer to string.
str2num - Convert string to number.
mat2str - Convert matrix to string.
sprintf - Convert number to string under format control.
sscanf - Convert string to number under format control.

Hexadecimal to number conversion.
hex2num - Convert hex string to IEEE floating point number.
hex2dec - Convert hex string to decimal integer.
dec2hex - Convert decimal integer to hex string.