MATLAB Programming Fundamentals - MathWorks

Symbol Symbol Name Role Description Examples

. Period or dot

• Decimal point


• Element-wise operations


• Structure field access


• Object property or method specifier

The period character separates the integral and fractional parts of a number, such as 3.1415.

MATLAB operators that contain a period always work element-wise. The period character also

enables you to access the fields in a structure, as well as the properties and methods of an object.

• “Array vs. Matrix Operations” on page 2-13


• “Structures”


• “Access Property Values”

Decimal point:

102.5543

Element-wise operations:

A.*B

A.^2

Structure field access:

myStruct.f1

Object property specifier:

myObj.PropertyName

...

Dot dot dot or

ellipsis

Line continuation

Three or more periods at the end of a line continues the current command on the next line. If three

or more periods occur before the end of a line, then MATLAB ignores the rest of the line and

continues to the next line. This effectively makes a comment out of anything on the current line that

follows the three periods.

NoteMATLAB interprets the ellipsis as a space character. Therefore, multi-line commands must be

valid as a single line with the ellipsis replaced by a space character.

• “Continue Long Statements on Multiple Lines” on page 1-2

Continue a function call on the next line:

sprintf(['The current value '...

'of %s is %d'],vname,value)

Break a character vector up on multiple lines and concatenate the lines together:

S = ['If three or more periods occur before the '...

'end of a line, then the rest of that line is ' ...

'ignored and MATLAB continues to the next line']

To comment out one line in a multiline command, use ... at the beginning of the line to ensure that the

command remains complete. If you use % to comment out a line it produces an error:

y = 1 +...

2 +...

% 3 +...

4;

However, this code runs properly since the third line does not produce a gap in the command:

y = 1 +...

2 +...

... 3 +...

4;

2 Program Components