How to Plot Variable Functions With a Matrix in MATLAB

MATLAB allows multiple curves to be plotted simultaneously with a matrix.

MATLAB is a professional programming package that contains a range of prebuilt functions for importing, analyzing, modeling and graphing technical data. Commonly, parameters for a mathematical function will need to be systematically varied during your analysis. The MATLAB plotting commands allow multiple curves to be plotted simultaneously by formatting multiple curves in a matrix.

Instructions

1. Define a one-dimensional signal by importing your own data or creating a vector of random noise:

   my_signal = rand(1,100);

2. Define a one-dimensional vector of variable magnitudes or whichever factor you wish to vary in your signal:

   my_factors = [1 3 5 10];

3. Multiply the transpose of your signal vector by your factor vector to create a matrix containing a version of your signal for each factor multiplier:

   my_matrix = my_signal' * my_factors;

4. Plot the resultant curves using the "plot()" function. Curves equal to the number of factors will be overlaid in different colors.

   plot(my_matrix)

References

• MATLAB Documentation: Plot
• MATLAB Documentation: Basic Plotting Functions