A particularly useful feature of MATLAB is the ability to define functions.
The syntax for defining the function $y=x^2$
is as follows:
function [y] = xsquared(x)
y = x^2;
[y]
indicates the variables that will be returned from the function: there may be multiple, e.g. [y1, y2]
.(x)
indicates the parameters that are passed to the function: there may be multiple, e.g. (x1, x2)
.Type these commands into an M-file called xsquared.m
and save this file.
Now type:
xsquared(5)
and then
d=7;
xsquared(d)
Note that MATLAB also allows you to apply functions to arrays.
To do this with the power function we modify the above by placing a '.'
before the '^'
in the above:
function [y] = xsquared(x)
y = x.^2;
Now type on the command line
e=[4,5,6];
xsquared(e)