Customer Reviews

Mastering MATLAB 7

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have been using a copy of this reference since I got started with Matlab about a year and a half ago. It is very good for beginners who need to look up how to do general tasks such as write a function using variable arguments, perform plotting, or figure out how to shoe-horn a problem into Matlab that doesn't really seem to fit the Matlab paradigm of everything being a matrix. I also particularly like the chapter on using Matlab with Java. Of course, if you are a more advanced user, this book will seem too simplistic. Even now, though, it's the first book I go to when I have a question that does not involve one of the specialized Matlab toolboxes. The table of contents is not shown by Amazon, so I show it here for the purpose of completeness:
1 GETTING STARTED
Introduction; Typographical Conventions; What's New in MATLAB 7; What's in Mastering MATLAB 7

2 BASIC FEATURES
Simple Math; The MATLAB Workspace; About Variables; Comments, Punctuation, and Aborting Execution; Complex Numbers;Floating-Point Arithmetic;Mathematical Functions

3 THE MATLAB DESKTOP
MATLAB Windows; Managing the MATLAB Workspace; Memory Management; Number Display Formats; Keeping a Session Log;System Information; The MATLAB Search Path

4 SCRIPT M-FILES
Script M-file Use; Block Comments and Code Cells; Setting Execution Time; Startup and Finish

5 ARRAYS AND ARRAY OPERATIONS
Simple Arrays; Array Addressing or Indexing; Array Construction; Array Orientation; Scalar-Array Mathematics; Array-Array Mathematics; Standard Arrays; Array Manipulation; Array Sorting; Subarray Searching; Array Manipulation Functions; Array Size; Arrays and Memory Utilization

6 MULTIDIMENSIONAL ARRAYS
Array Construction; Array Mathematics and Manipulation; Array Size

7 NUMERIC DATA TYPES
Integer Data Types; Floating Point Data Types; Summary

8 CELL ARRAYS AND STRUCTURES
Cell Array Creation; Cell Array Manipulation; Retrieving Cell Array Content; Comma-Separated Lists; Cell Functions; Cell Arrays of Strings; Structure Creation; Structure Manipulation; Retrieving Structure Content; Comma-Separated Lists (Again); Structure Functions; Summary

9 CHARACTER STRINGS
String Construction; Numbers to Strings to Numbers; String Evaluation; String Functions; Cell Arrays of Strings; Searching Using Regular Expressions

10 RELATIONAL AND LOGICAL OPERATIONS
Relational Operators; Logical Operators; Operator Precedence; Relational and Logical Functions; NaNs and Empty Arrays

11 CONTROL FLOW
For Loops; While Loops; If-Else-End Constructions; Switch-Case Constructions; Try-Catch Blocks

12 FUNCTIONS
M-file Function Construction Rules; Input and Output Arguments; Function Workspaces; Functions and the MATLAB Search Path; Creating Your Own Toolbox; Command-Function Duality; Function Handles and Anonymous Functions; Nested Functions;

13 M-FILE DEBUGGING AND PROFILING
Debugging Tools; Syntax Checking and File Dependencies; Profiling M-files

14 FILE AND DIRECTORY MANAGEMENT
Native Data Files; Data Import and Export; Low-Level File I/O; Directory Management; FTP File Operations

15 SET, BIT, AND BASE FUNCTIONS
Set Functions; Bit Functions; Base Conversions

16 TIME COMPUTATIONS
Current Date and Time; Date Format Conversions; Date Functions; Timing Functions; Plot Labels

17 MATRIX ALGEBRA
Sets of Linear Equations; Matrix Functions; Special Matrices; Sparse Matrices; Sparse Matrix Functions

18 DATA ANALYSIS
Basic Statistical Analysis; Basic Data Analysis; Data Analysis and Statistical Functions

19 DATA INTERPOLATION
One-Dimensional Interpolation; Two-Dimensional Interpolation; Triangulation and Scattered Data; Summary

20 POLYNOMIALS
Roots; Multiplication; Addition; Division; Derivatives and Integrals; Evaluation; Rational Polynomials; Curve Fitting

21 CUBIC SPLINES
Basic Features; Piecewise Polynomials; Cubic Hermite Polynomials; Integration; Differentiation; Spline Interpolation on a Plane

22 FOURIER ANALYSIS
Discrete Fourier Transform; Fourier Series

23 OPTIMIZATION
Zero Finding; Minimization in One Dimension; Minimization in Higher Dimensions; Practical Issues

24 INTEGRATION AND DIFFERENTIATION
Integration; Differentiation

25 DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
IVP Format; ODE Suite Solvers; Basic Use; Setting Options; BVPs, PDEs and DDEs

26 TWO-DIMENSIONAL GRAPHICS
The plot Function; Linestyles, Markers, and Colors; Plot Grids, Axes Box, and Labels; Customizing Plot Axes; Multiple Plots; Multiple Figures; Subplots Interactive Plotting Tools; Screen Updates; Specialized 2-D Plots; Easy Plotting; Text Formatting; Summary

27 THREE-DIMENSIONAL GRAPHICS
Line Plots; Scalar Functions of Two Variables; Mesh Plots; Surface Plots; Mesh and Surface Plots of Irregular Data; Changing Viewpoints; Camera Control; Contour Plots; Specialized 3-D Plots; Volume Visualization; Easy Plotting; Summary

28 USING COLOR AND LIGHT
Understanding Colormaps; Using Colormaps; Displaying Colormaps; Creating and Altering Colormaps; Using Color to Describe a Fourth Dimension; Lighting Models; Summary

29 IMAGES, MOVIES, AND SOUND
Images; Image Formats; Image Files; Movies; Image Utilities; Sound; Summary

30 PRINTING AND EXPORTING GRAPHICS
Printing and Exporting Using Menus; Command Line Printing and Exporting; Printers and Export File Formats; PostScript Support; Choosing a Renderer; Handle Graphics Properties; Setting Defaults; Summary

31 HANDLE GRAPHICS
Objects; Object Handles;Object Properties; get and set; Finding Objects; Selecting Objects with the Mouse; Position and Units; Default Properties; Common Properties Plot Objects Group Objects; Annotation Axes; Linking Objects; New Plots; Rendering Speed; Callbacks; M-file Examples; Summary

32 GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACES
What's a GUI?; Predefined Dialog Boxes; M-file Dialog Boxes; Dialog Box Summary; GUI Object Hierarchy; GUI Creation Fundamentals; GUI Object Size and Position; Capturing Mouse Actions; The Event Queue; Callback Programming M-file Examples; GUIDE; Summary

33 MATLAB CLASSES AND OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING
Overloading; Class Creation; Subscripts; Converter Functions; Precedence, Inheritance, and Aggregation

34 MATLAB PROGRAMMING INTERFACES
Accessing MATLAB Arrays; Calling C or FORTRAN from MATLAB; Calling MATLAB from C or FORTRAN; Exchanging Data with MAT-files; Shared Libraries; Serial Communications; Source Code Control Systems; Summary

35 EXTENDING MATLAB WITH JAVA
Java Overview; Java Classes; Java Objects; Java Methods; Object Properties; Data Exchange; Java Arrays; Java Functions; Examples; Summary

36 WINDOWS APPLICATION INTEGRATION
COM Objects: Client/Server Communication; Dynamic Data Exchange; MATLAB Notebook; MATLAB COM-related Toolboxes; Summary

37 GETTING HELP
Command Window Help; The Help Browser; Internet Resources; Mastering MATLAB 7 Help; Summary

38 EXAMPLES, EXAMPLES, EXAMPLES
Vectorization; JIT-Acceleration; Up-Down Sequence; Vandermonde Matrix; Repeated Value Creation and Counting; Differential Sums; Structure Manipulation; Inverse Interpolation; Polynomial Fitting; Nonlinear Curve Fitting; Picture-in-a-Picture Zoom

The text does not assume knowledge of C++. As author of all four editions of this text, I have no knowledge of C or C++. A less comprehensive text may be more useful for those who want just an "introduction" to MATLAB. Given the page count limit, this text attempts to be a comprehensive tutorial and reference. The software itself ships with 4000+ pages of documentation (mostly as pdf files).

I use this book everyday. It is easy to find what you need right away. Although, MatLab has demos that you can use to write programs or m-scripts, the book has features that are not in the demos that will make writing scripts much easier. It doesn't go into great detail with more difficult plots but allows for the those who just need 1-D, 2-D and simple 3-D plots to plot data points easily and fast. This is definitely the bible for first time users of MatLab.

This is one of the best books on Matlab I have read. Mastering Matlab takes you step by step on the basics of Matlab and even goes on to some more advanced topics. Once you get past the basics in the first couple of chapters, you can skip ahead to the chapter with the topic you are interested in.

The book gives clear expanations and lots of examples. One of my university professors recommended this book to me.

If you want to learn matlab, get this book. As the title suggests, after reading the book you will master matlab.

If you're not sure about buying this book, I would suggest going to your university library and checking it out. I kept borrowing it out over and over, until I decided I should buy my own copy so that I always have a handy reference at hand.

I have been a user of MATLAB for maybe ten years and have purchaed many third party books on MATLAB over that time. I found the text Mastering MATLAB 7 to be at best only fair. It might have some value (and there are other books with more value) as a review of specific features of MATLAB, but when it covers new territory it is a poor or at best a fair choice. For example the section on differential equations (Chapter 25) is little more than a rehash of the MATLAB help menue which is to say it could have been copied out of the MATLAB users manual. The value of a third party book (as opposed to the users manual) is that it should be a tutorial and a "fill in the blanks" that not present in the manufacturers literature. I had been trying to stop a six state integration when one of the states goes to zero; I find the material in said chapter worthless. If you buy this book looking for a tutorial you will find it usually poor and at best only fair. The book is a great disappointment to me.

I have used this book and have loaned it to many of the students doing research with me. I have found it quite useful as a general reference and particularly like the examples of ways to create different types of figures. It is quite comprehensive, covering all of the basics.

At first glance, excellent text (acts as a perfect reference for MATLAB), but upon further inspection, sever flaws became apparent. For one, being a electrical, computer, and biomedical engineering double major (electrical and computer fall under one major at this university) along with mathematics as a third major, I would have greatly appreciated if more examples were placed in the book. Don't get me wrong, the examples provide the reader with a good idea of how the built-in functions (that are so useful) work, but there still needs to be more and I think exercises (like in Chapra's and Palm's books on using MATLAB with engineering applications) would go a long way into strengthing the quality and usefulness of this book. However, if you already know the basics of MATLAB and don't mind a little bit of searching in MATLAB's help files for a better answer, than this book is perfect for anyone who is starting to use MATLAB extensively.

This is a huge and comprehensive book about MATLAB but definitely not for beginners. It can also be used as a reference. It covers everything you need to know about MATLAB - even classes and object-oriented programming. However, if you are just beginning to learn MATLAB, you may want to check the book "MATLAB for Beginners: A Gentle Approach".

There's a lot here. Matlab has grown tremendously, and the authors give a comprehensive walkthrough of Version 7. It is directed at the programmer who might want to perform intensive computations. The Matlab scripting language is explained, as a powerful way to store a sequence of commands in a scripting file. For many practical uses, M-files are the way to go. It is how you store your Matlab expertise, so to speak.

The chapter on matrix algebra shows powerful tools for matrix manipulations. Useful for many types of linear systems analysis.

Now, you can even tie Matlab into actual programming languages. From a C or Fortran program, you can invoke Matlab, and vice versa. While there are also ways to run Matlab and access Java class files.

But if you want symbolic algebra capabilities, I suggest you learn Mathematica. That was the latter's original forte and is still its core strength. Whereas Matlab was always about pure number crunching.

This is overall a pretty good reference when working with Matlab, although sometimes the information is spread out in the book and it is difficult to narrow in on one topic.