Cheat Sheets

MATLAB for Python Users

The MATLAB language is designed primarily for math-intensive scientific computing. MATLAB combines a desktop environment tuned for iterative analysis with a programming language that expresses matrix and array mathematics directly. Understanding the philosophy and API design can help while learning MATLAB.

Enhance Python with MATLAB

Integrate MATLAB’s advanced tools directly into your Python workflows.

Learn more

Table of Contents

General Behavior

Referencing

Functions

Data Types

Control Flow

Objects

General Behavior
Python Syntax MATLAB Syntax Purpose MATLAB Examples
# %

Comment

 % hello
print Do not terminate with ;

Print output

 x
/ ...

Continue to next line

 x = 1+...2;
os !

Operating system command

 ! echo hi
+ - * / + - * /

Mathematical operators

 x = 1+2
** ^

Exponent

 x = y^2
* / ** .* ./ .^

Element-wise operators

 x = [1 2].* [3 4]
not, and, or ~ & |

NOT, AND, OR logical operators

 if x<2 & x>2
del clear

Clear variable from memory

 clear x y
clear clc

Clear command window

 clc

Referencing
MATLAB Syntax Purpose Example
( )

Index (copy-on-write)

 x(1,1)
[ ]

Create array

 x = [1 2 3]

Join arrays

 z = [x ; y]
{ }

Create cell arrays

 x = {42; "hello world"}

Extract contents from a container

 x{1,1}
.

Access class property or method

 obj.Data

Reference table or struct field

 t.FieldName
  • Beginning element has an index of 1.
  • Indexing is left and right inclusive.
  • Indexing options include N-D indexing (row,col), linear indexing (element number), and logical indexing (conditional statement).

Functions
Creating functions

You can declare functions within a function file. Input arguments are captured in parentheses.

 function z = foo(x,y)
   ...
end

Multiple outputs are captured with square brackets.

 function [a,b] = foo(x,y)
    ...
end

Calling functions with input arguments and name-value pairs

   y = foo(x,y,"Name",Value)

Data Types

Similar data types:
Python MATLAB
float double, single
complex complex single, complex double
int (u)int8, (u)int16, (u)int32, (u)int64
float(nan) NaN
float(inf) inf
str str, char
bool logical
dict struct
list, tuple cell
pandas.dataframe table

MATLAB defaults to store all numeric values as double-precision floating-point numbers. Python stores some numbers as integers and others as floating-point numbers. In MATLAB, for x=4 and y=4.0, x is always equal to y.

Control Flow
Statement Example

for

 for i = 1:10
   ...
end

if

 if x<
   ...
   elseif x == 2    
   else
   ...
end

while

 while x<3
   ...
end

switch-case

 switch switch_arg
   ...
   case case_arg
   ...
end

try-catch

 try
   ...
   catch
   ...
end

Objects
Define a class Use a class
classdef MyClass
   properties
      MyProp
   end
   methods
      function obj = MyClass(val)
      end
      function y = MyMethod(obj,x)
      end
   end
end

  • Save the class definition with the same name as the class

    MyClass.m

  • Create an object of the class

    a = MyClass

  • Access the properties

    a.MyProp

  • Call methods to perform operations

    b = MyMethod(a,val)

  • To pass-by-reference, create a “handle” class

    classdef myclass < handle
       ...
    end