Chapter 2. Interacting with Octave: Variables and Operators

Octave is specifically designed to work with vectors and matrices. In this chapter, you will learn how to instantiate such objects (or variables), how to compare them, and how to perform simple arithmetic with them. Octave also supports more advanced variable types, namely, structures and cell arrays, which we will learn about. With Octave, you have an arsenal of functionalities that enable you to retrieve information about the variables. These tools are important to know later in the book, and we will go through the most important ones.

In detail, we will learn how to:

• Instantiate simple numerical variables i.e. scalars, vectors, and matrices.

• Instantiate text string variables.

• Instantiate complex variables.

• Retrieve variable elements through simple vectorized expressions.

• Instantiate structures, cell arrays, and multidimensional arrays.

• Get information about the variables.

• Add and subtract numerical variables.

• Perform matrix products...