It might sound more like a laboratory where you do math homework, but, believe it or not, MATLAB is not an office on your college campus but rather a programming language. There are many programming languages currently in use, all with slightly different purposes, strengths, and benefits. MATLAB Is particularly good for math—but, you might be surprised to learn, the “MAT” in MATLAB doesn’t stand for “math.” In this article, we’ll take a look at MATLAB and what makes it a great programming language.
But first, we need to talk a bit about what a programming language is.
What is a Programming Language?
There are many ways of thinking about programming languages, but at root, programming is a series of instructions that tells a computer what to do. The computer then takes those instructions and executes a series of actions based on those instructions. A programming language allows a programmer to direct a computer to perform data analysis, visualization, numerical computation, and many other functions. However, learning a programming language like MATLAB doesn’t have to be a challenge! While MATLAB can be quite difficult, there are many great resources to help you learn about it. For one, you could take a college-level course in programming. If you are currently working on a MATLAB course and are facing difficulties handling your MATLAB homework, there is help. When students like you need MATLAB assignment help, you can pay online experts to get the programming help you need on the toughest MATLAB projects.
In order to understand how beneficial MATLAB help can be, we’ll need to talk about what MATLAB is and how the programming language can help you with your computing projects.
What is MATLAB?
MATLAB is a high-level programming language and environment for working with matrices and vectors that is specifically designed to excel at functions such as numerical computing, data analysis, and visualization. The name stands for “MATrix LABoratory,” and it was initially developed back in the 1970s by a company called MathWorks, which still oversees MATLAB today. MATLAB was designed to incorporate a wide range of built-in functions and toolboxes with the goal of creating an extremely powerful tool that could be used to develop many types of scientific and engineering applications.
Features and Uses of MATLAB
Among the most important features and uses of MATLAB:
- Numerical Computation. Are you looking for a programming language that was specifically designed for science and engineering? Terrific! When you use MATLAB, you’ll find that the programming language is well suited to mathematical functions in areas such as linear algebra, optimization, signal processing, statistics, and more, because where MATLAB truly excels is in numerical calculations and finding solutions to the most difficult mathematical problems. MATLAB makes it a breeze to handle arrays, vectors, matrices, and more. While other languages can also handle these types of tasks, MATLAB is optimized for the more challenging parts of math so you can get answers fast.
- Simulations and Modeling. One way MATLAB outpaces the competition is in building simulations and models. No matter which scientific and engineering field you’re looking to work in, you’ll find experts using MATLAB to simulate dynamic systems, design control systems, and analyze the behavior of physical systems, and even perform Monte Carlo simulations, which predict possible outcomes when there is uncertainty involved. Do you want to visualize your data? Terrific! MATLAB has the ability to work seamlessly with a graphical environment called Simulink, allowing for graphical modeling and simulating of dynamic systems.
- Data Analysis and Visualization. Visualization has other benefits, too. When you use MATLAB, you’ll also have access to an array of powerful tools designed to help you analyze, manipulate, and visualize data. Data science is one of the fastest-growing areas of business—indeed, the Harvard Business Review even called it one of the sexiest jobs of the 21st century—so there is always a call for innovative ways to import, preprocess, and analyze the data you receive from files, databases, and sensors. MATLAB provides the most effective way of running analysis and visualization programs, with capabilities that make it a snap to create 2D and 3D plots, graphs, charts, and animations.
- Algorithm Development. The heart of data analysis is the algorithms you use to process data, and MATLAB provides an interactive environment to develop and test algorithms to hone your approach. But no one wants this to be the hardest part of any project. Fortunately, MATLAB helps to make it simple. MATLAB has a concise and intuitive syntax that makes the complex parts of mathematical computation much easier, and MATLAB makes it simple to prototype, debug, and integrate your algorithms before you’re ready to deploy them.
- Application Deployment. Do you want to deploy your MATLAB code as a standalone application or a web app? Great! MATLAB has you covered. You can share your work with colleagues and collaborations and even people who aren’t using MATLAB. With tools like MATLAB Compiler and MATLAB Web App Server, the deployment process is a snap.
- Community and Ecosystem. It’s important to realize that you are not alone when you are using MATLAB. Because it is widespread in the scientific and engineering worlds, you can find an active user base that provides documentation, online discussions, and even collaborative spaces to share code and work together on problems. The company behind MATLAB, MathWorks, maintains an active update schedule, with frequent releases of new toolboxes and even integration with rival languages like C++, Python, and Java.
