octave Getting started with octave
Remarks
This section provides an overview of what octave is, and why a developer might want to use it.
It should also mention any large subjects within octave, and link out to the related topics. Since the Documentation for octave is new, you may need to create initial versions of those related topics.
Hello World
-
start Octave by running the command
octave(the executable should be in your path) -
type
disp('Hello, World!')at the Octave command prompt
>> disp('Hello, World!')
Hello, World!
Installation or Setup
Instructions on getting octave set up or installed.
Installing Octave for debian systems (Debian, Ubuntu):
Simple: sudo apt-get install octave
Advanced: Well, if you want to install other external packages
sudo apt-get install octave-control octave-image octave-io octave-optim octave-signal octave-statistics
For furter details like
- install from PPA.
- install from sources, etc.
A very good detailed wikis are present in Octave's wiki pages
-
For Debian or Ubuntu look at this - wiki
-
For Windows have a look at this - wiki
-
And for Mac OS X look at this - wiki
Matrices
Create a 2x3 matrix. Each row is a comma-separated list of elements. Rows are separated by a semicolon.
A = [1, 2, 3; 4, 5, 6]
# A =
#
# 1 2 3
# 4 5 6
Sum of two matrices
B = [1, 1, 1; 1, 1, 1]
# B =
#
# 1 1 1
# 1 1 1
A+B
# ans =
#
# 2 3 4
# 5 6 7
Multiply matrix by a scalar
2*A
# ans =
#
# 2 4 6
# 8 10 12
Matrix multiplication
C = [1, 0; 0, 0; 0, 1]
# C =
#
# 1 0
# 0 0
# 0 1
A*C
# ans =
#
# 1 3
# 4 6
A matrix can be a column vector
C = [2; 0; 1]
# C =
#
# 2
# 0
# 1
A * C
# ans =
#
# 5
# 14
Concatenating matrices
For horizontal concatenation, that is joining two block matrices column-wise
A= [1,2;3,4];
B=[4,3;2,1];
C=horzcat(A,B);
disp(C)
# C=
#
# 1 2 4 3
# 3 4 2 1
Reading commands from a script file
Octave commands can be saved in a file and evaluated by loading the file using source .
For instance, let hello.m be the text file containing two lines (the first line is a comment)
# my first Octave program
disp('Hello, World!')
If you type source hello.m at an Octave command prompt you will get
>> source hello.m
Hello, World!
Note that a script file doesn't necessarily have to have the extension .m .
