Plot unit step function

I'm trying to plot the signal u(t)-u(t-1) without heaviside in MATLAB. I've tried to use the if loop but couldn't figure it out.

[Fangjun Jiang]

Not clear.

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

You can use a ‘logical indexing’ approach:

ustp = @(t) +(t>0);                                 % Simple Unit Step Function

t = linspace(-5, 5);

figure
plot(t, ustp(t)-ustp(t-1))
grid

I will let you figure out how it works.

[Anurag Paul]

It works by using ‘logical indexing’, so that here, if ‘t’ is greater than 0, the logical comparison returns 1 for all values of ‘t’ greater than 0. When used in computations, the logical 1 becomes numerical 1, so the double function call is not necessary. - copied👆

[Vicky]

Can you explain how you wrote "@(t) +(t>0)"? It worked perfectly but I'm unsure what the @ is doing here. Thank you so much!

[Star Strider]

@Vicky — That is an anonymous function. It works the same way other functions do, and can be called similarly. The ‘@’ creates its function handle.

See the documentation on Anonymous Functions and What is a Function Handle? for details.