Programming

Data Types

There are many different types of data that you can work with in MATLAB. You can build matrices and arrays of floating-point and integer data, characters and strings, logical true and false states, etc. You can also develop your own data types using MATLAB classes. Two of the MATLAB data types, structures and cell arrays, provide a way to store dissimilar types of data in the same array. This chapter describes each of these data types and how to use them in your MATLAB programming.


Overview of MATLAB Data Types	Brief description of all MATLAB data types
Numeric Types	Integer and floating-point data types, complex numbers, `NaN`, infinity, and numeric display format
Logical Types	States of `true` and `false`, use of logicals in conditional statements and logical indexing, logical/numeric conversion
Characters and Strings	Characters, strings, cell arrays of strings, string comparison, search and replace, character/numeric conversion
Dates and Times	Date strings, serial date numbers, date vectors, date type conversion, output display format
Structures	C-like structures with named fields, dynamic field names, adding and removing fields
Cell Arrays	Arrays of cells containing different data types and shapes, using cell arrays in argument lists, numeric/cell conversion
Function Handles	Passing function access data to other functions, extending function scope, extending the lifetime of variables
MATLAB Classes	Object-oriented classes and methods using MATLAB classes, creating your own MATLAB data types
Java Classes	Working with Java classes within MATLAB using the MATLAB interface to the Java programming language

Summary of Matrix and Array Functions Overview of MATLAB Data Types