EDUCBA

EDUCBA

MENUMENU
  • Free Tutorials
  • Free Courses
  • Certification Courses
  • 360+ Courses All in One Bundle
  • Login

While Loop in Matlab

By Priya PedamkarPriya Pedamkar

Home » Data Science » Data Science Tutorials » Matlab Tutorial » While Loop in Matlab

while loop in matlab

Introduction to While loop in MATLAB

MATLAB is a scientific programming language that is used a lot for research and academic purposes. A lot of industries are also using it, but universities and research organizations are the main customers of this proprietary software tool. MATLAB is developed by MathWorks and in order to use it, one must purchase a license. For students and beginners, however, it does come with a limited-time trial version.

It is so popular that it is used by colleges and universities across the world to teach scientific computation and engineering such as signal processing, control system, advanced mathematics, and many other subjects. Today, even after the easy availability of open-source software such as R and Python for similar work, it is still popular and used extensively.

Start Your Free Data Science Course

Hadoop, Data Science, Statistics & others

In this article, we provide basic building blocks of MATLAB and specifically focus on a while loop. If you are familiar with other programming languages then you must be aware of loops such as for loop, if loop, while loop, etc. We shall talk about the same in the context of MATLAB. And, if you are completely new to programming then as well you need not worry as the discussions in this article is at absolute beginner level and you are not required to have a programming background. But, it is expected that you know the basic data types in MATLAB.

Syntax

In this section, we shall provide syntax of a while loop and then subsequently explain the same in step by step method.

while expression
statements
end

Explanation

  1. While is the keyword for while loop.
  2. An expression is a condition that needs to be true for the while loop to work.
  3. Statements are the actions that would be executed if the condition or expression is true.
  4. The end is the keyword which suggested the closure of the loop.

To better understand the syntax, let’s take an example.

Example:

a = 10;
% while loop execution example
while( a < 20 )
fprintf('value of a: %d\n', a);
a = a + 1;
end

Explanation of the Example

  1. We define a variable to be equal to 10
  2. A line starting with % is the comment in MATLAB, so we can ignore the same.
  3. While loop starts and the condition is less than 20. What it means is that the while loop will run till the value of a is less than 20. Note that currently, the value of a is 10.
  4. Next line prints the current value of a and after that, the next line is executed
  5. The line a=a+1, adds 1 to a and then the while condition is again checked. Now the value of a is 11 which is still less than 20 so the loop runs again.
  6. Finally, the loop runs until a attains the value 19 and after that, it stops.

The detailed output will be shown in the example section.

Popular Course in this category
Sale
MATLAB Training (3 Courses, 1 Project)3 Online Courses | 1 Hands-on Project | 8+ Hours | Verifiable Certificate of Completion | Lifetime Access
4.5 (8,856 ratings)
Course Price

View Course

Related Courses
R Programming Training (13 Courses, 20+ Projects)All in One Data Science Bundle (360+ Courses, 50+ projects)

Flow diagram

Let’s understand the flow diagram of a while loop for better clarity.

Boolean box

The flow diagram above is quite simple and self-explanatory. It is the same as the steps described above in the syntax section. When the Boolean condition is true the statements are executed otherwise it does nothing and loop execution stops.

How while Loop Works in MATLAB?

The working of the while loop is quite clear from the flow diagram above. A step by step explanation of syntax is also provided in the syntax section. In this section, we shall explain the same ideas in more detail.

A while loop has mainly three parts that need to be understood.

  1. There has to be some Boolean condition that would be evaluated by the loop.
  2. There needs to have some action for that Boolean condition. i.e. what happens when the condition is true and what happens when the condition is false.
  3. The control of the loop moves according to the nature of the condition i.e either it computes something, or it stops working.

Based on the condition provided, a while loop can run for a finite number of times producing finite output or it can go for as long as possible unless stopped manually.

An infinite loop may look like below:

N=1;
While N < 5
N = N-1
end

You may note here that as the value of N is decreasing in each iteration, it will always satisfy the condition and hence will continue working infinitely. Is not it simple and yet so powerful?

Examples of while loop in Matlab

Let’s talk about a few examples to understand further.

Example #1 – This is the same example as above

a = 10;
% while loop execution example
while( a < 20 )
fprintf('value of a: %d\n', a);
a = a + 1;
end

Output:

Value of a: 10
Value of a: 11
Value of a: 12
Value of a: 13
Value of a: 14
Value of a: 15
Value of a: 16
Value of a: 17
Value of a: 18
Value of a: 19

Example #2

i = 1;
s = 0;
% while loop execution example
while( i < 3 )
fprintf('intermediate sum: %d\n', s);
s = s + i;
i = i + 1;
end

Output:

intermediate sum = 0
intermediate sum = 1

Example #3

i = 1;
while (i < 3)
i
i = i + 1;
end

Output:

i = 1
i = 2

Conclusion

With the above examples and explanations, I hope the article gave a fair idea of while loop in MATLAB. Students are advised to run the examples shown in the MATLAB command window and see for themselves how the output is coming. As a next step, students are advised to make small changes in the example codes and run the same to see what the effect on the output is. Thereafter, they can also practice various examples available on the web or try to create some simple exercises yourself. Coding is all about practice, so keep practicing as much as possible.

Recommended Article

This has been a guide to While Loop in Matlab. Here we discuss the working concepts, flow diagram, and some examples of While Loop in Matlab to understand it better manner. You can also go through our other suggested articles to learn more –

  1. What is ETL?
  2. What is Data Science
  3. What is Teradata?
  4. Top 6 AWS Alternatives
  5. Guide to While Loop in R
  6. MATLAB Functions
  7. Matlab Compiler | Applications of Matlab Compiler

MATLAB Training (3 Courses)

3 Online Courses

1 Hands-on Project

8+ Hours

Verifiable Certificate of Completion

Lifetime Access

Learn More

0 Shares
Share
Tweet
Share
Primary Sidebar
Matlab Tutorial
  • Control Statements
    • IF-Else Statement in MATLAB
    • If Statement in MATLAB
    • Loops in MATLAB
    • For Loop in MATLAB
    • While Loop in MATLAB
    • do while loop in MATLAB
    • Nested Loop in MATLAB
    • Switch Statement in MATLAB
    • Break in MATLAB
  • Basic
    • MATLAB Area Under Curve
    • MATLAB not equal
    • MATLAB max
    • MATLAB exist
    • MATLAB Table
    • MATLAB regression
    • MATLAB Lists
    • MATLAB quantile
    • MATLAB Round
    • MATLAB readtable
    • MATLAB disp
    • MATLAB Standard Deviation
    • MATLAB quadprog
    • MATLAB Transpose
    • Introduction to MATLAB
    • Advantages of MATLAB
    • MATLAB Features
    • Taylor Series MATLAB
    • MATLAB Z Transform
    • fsolve in MATLAB
    • Is MATLAB Free
    • MATLAB QR
    • Career in MATLAB
    • Uses Of MATLAB
    • Is MATLAB Free
    • How to Install MATLAB
    • How to Use MATLAB?
    • MATLAB Version
    • MATLAB Compiler
    • MATLAB Commands
    • MATLAB Block Comment
    • MATLAB? sprintf
    • MATLAB fprintf
    • Data Types in MATLAB
    • MATLAB Integral
    • MATLAB Double Integral
    • MATLAB boolean
    • MATLAB vpa
    • MATLAB Object
    • MATLAB Annotation
    • MATLAB Variables
    • MATLAB Global Variables
    • MATLAB Operators
    • MATLAB Logical Operators
    • MATLAB nan
    • MATLAB Patch
    • MATLAB AND Operator
    • MATLAB OR Operator
    • Vectors in MATLAB
    • What is Simulink in MATLAB
    • MATLAB Interpolation
    • MATLAB Imread
    • fscanf MATLAB
    • Euler Method MATLAB
    • Root Locus MATLAB
    • MATLAB return
    • Bode Plot MATLAB
    • Nargin MATLAB
    • MATLAB Matrix Inverse
    • MATLAB String to Number
    • MATLAB string
    • MATLAB ColorBar
    • MATLAB Surfc
    • MATLAB Concatenate
    • NUMEL MATLAB
    • MATLAB? File Extension
    • MATLAB File
    • MATLAB Smooth
    • MATLAB ones
    • Exponential in MATLAB
    • MATLAB ksdensity
    • MATLAB log
    • MATLAB Append
    • MATLAB hold on
    • MATLAB Magnitude of Vector
    • Heatmap in MATLAB
    • MATLAB xticks
    • MATLAB randn
  • Functions
    • MATLAB Functions
    • MATLAB user defined function
    • Calling Functions in MATLAB
    • Transfer Functions in MATLAB
    • Anonymous Functions in MATLAB
    • Inline Functions in MATLAB
    • Bessel Functions in MATLAB
    • Mean Function in MATLAB
    • Find Function MATLAB
    • Filter Function in MATLAB
    • IIR Filter MATLAB
    • Piecewise Function in MATLAB
    • Sum Function in MATLAB
    • Simulink MATLAB Function
    • MATLAB Create Function
    • MATLAB Inverse Function
    • MATLAB Count
    • Step Function MATLAB
    • MATLAB limit
    • fminsearch in MATLAB
    • Covariance in MATLAB
    • Summation in MATLAB
    • Linear Fit MATLAB
    • MATLAB?linear regression
    • MATLAB Derivative
    • MATLAB Derivative of Function
    • MATLAB Comet()
    • Fzero MATLAB
    • xlabel MATLAB
    • Matplotlib Legend
    • Matplotlib Subplots
    • Plot graph MATLAB
    • MATLAB Format
    • MATLAB plot title
    • Multiple Plots in MATLAB
    • MATLAB Indexing
    • Ceil MATLAB
    • Curve Fitting MATLAB
    • MATLAB trapz()
    • MATLAB Normalize
    • MATLAB diff
    • MATLAB sym()
    • MATLAB Syms
    • Absolute Value MATLAB
    • MATLAB Exponential
    • Kalman Filter MATLAB
    • Low Pass Filter MATLAB
    • Bandpass Filter MATLAB
    • MATLAB Unique
    • Trapezoidal Rule MATLAB
    • MATLAB Root Finding
    • MATLAB stem()
    • MATLAB loglog()
    • MATLAB Autocorrelation
    • MATLAB Sort
    • Simplify MATLAB
    • Cumsum MATLAB
    • Eval Function MATLAB
    • Polyval MATLAB
    • MATLAB Colon
    • MATLAB Eigenvalues
    • MATLAB fit
    • Delta Function MATLAB
    • MATLAB Remainder
    • Differentiation in MATLAB
    • Permute MATLAB
    • isempty MATLAB
    • MATLAB text()
    • MATLAB Display Text
    • Varargin in MATLAB
    • MATLAB gca
    • MATLAB fill()
    • MATLAB pcolor()
    • MATLAB min
    • MATLAB xcorr
    • MATLAB? color codes
    • Semilogy MATLAB
    • MATLAB? eye
    • feval MATLAB
    • num2str in MATLAB
    • MATLAB Images
    • MATLAB Image? Segmentation
    • Imagesc MATLAB
    • MATLAB Image Processing
    • MATLAB Image Resize
    • MATLAB Flag
    • MATLAB fopen
    • Strcmp MATLAB
    • MATLAB fwrite
    • MATLAB fft()
    • MATLAB zeros()
    • MATLAB textread
    • Arctan MATLAB
    • MATLAB Scripts
    • Butterworth filter MATLAB
    • MATLAB Findpeaks
    • MATLAB find Index
    • MATLAB Cell
    • MATLAB Unit Step Function
    • MATLAB Backslash
    • MATLAB Mod
    • Size Function in MATLAB
    • Secant MATLAB
  • Matrix
    • Matrix in MATLAB
    • 3D Matrix in MATLAB
    • Transpose Matrix MATLAB
    • Sparse Matrix in MATLAB
    • Matrix Multiplication in MATLAB
    • Identity Matrix in MATLAB
    • MATLAB?writematrix
  • Advanced
    • MATLAB Class
    • Arrays in MATLAB
    • Matlab Textscan
    • String Array in MATLAB
    • Matlab Dot
    • MATLAB 2D Array
    • MATLAB? zero padding
    • MATLAB sort matrix
    • MATLAB Plot Function
    • 2D Plots in MATLAB
    • 3D Plots in MATLAB
    • MATLAB Fread
    • Spectrogram MATLAB
    • MATLAB Average
    • MATLAB exponent
    • MATLAB not enough input arguments
    • MATLAB comment
    • MATLAB zpk
    • Scatter Plots in MATLAB
    • MATLAB 3d scatter plot
    • Bar Graph in MATLAB
    • Bar Plot MATLAB
    • Log Plot MATLAB
    • Polar Plot in MATLAB
    • Surface Plot in MATLAB
    • MATLAB Plot Circle
    • Boxplot in MATLAB
    • MATLAB Plot Multiple Lines
    • Linspace MATLAB
    • Histogram in MATLAB
    • Plot Vector MATLAB
    • MATLAB Legend
    • MATLAB Plot Legend
    • MATLAB ezplots
    • Column Vector MATLAB
    • MATLAB Plot Marker
    • MATLAB LineWidth
    • MATLAB Line Style
    • Contour plot in MATLAB
    • MATLAB Sine Wave
    • Reshape in MATLAB
    • Natural Log in MATLAB
    • Random Number Generator in MATLAB
    • Complex Numbers in MATLAB
    • MATLAB Figure
    • Heatmap in MATLAB
    • MATLAB Technical Computing
    • Colors in MATLAB
    • Colormap in MATLAB
    • MATLAB Plot Colors
    • MATLAB fplot()
    • MATLAB Stacked Bar
    • MATLAB sphere()
    • MATLAB cylinder()
    • MATLAB mesh()
    • Pie Chart in MATLAB
    • MATLAB Gradient
    • Grid on MATLAB
    • Repmat in MATLAB
    • dlmread in MATLAB
    • Meshgrid in MATLAB
    • MATLAB Struct
    • MATLAB Cross Product
    • MATLAB colorbar Label
    • MATLAB Save Variable
    • MATLAB Saveas
    • MATLAB Cell Array
    • Polynomial in MATLAB
    • ismember MATLAB
    • Heaviside MATLAB
    • MATLAB rref
    • MATLAB polyfit()
    • MATLAB xlim
    • MATLAB Variance
    • Optimset MATLAB
    • Quiver MATLAB
    • Newton Raphson MATLAB
    • Mat2cell MATLAB
    • Magnitude MATLAB
    • format long MATLAB
    • Dot Product MATLAB
    • Jacobian MATLAB
    • Convolution MATLAB
    • Moving Average MATLAB
    • Fourier Series MATLAB
    • Gaussian Fit MATLAB
    • Bisection Method MATLAB
    • Laplace Transform MATLAB
    • Fourier Transform MATLAB
    • Signal Processing MATLAB
    • MATLAB Forms
    • Complex Conjugate MATLAB
    • MATLAB Write to File
    • uigetfile MATLAB
    • MATLAB Toolbox
    • MATLAB Errorbar
    • MATLAB Index Exceeds Matrix Dimensions
    • Nyquist MATLAB
    • Impulse Response MATLAB
    • xlsread MATLAB
    • MATLAB xlswrite
    • Matplotlib Scatter
    • MATLAB Import Data
    • MATLAB Export Data
    • MATLAB Read CSV
  • Programs
    • Square Root in MATLAB
    • Factorial in MATLAB
    • Cell to String MATLAB
  • Interview Questions
    • MATLAB Interview Questions

Related Courses

MATLAB Certification Course

R Programming Course

All in One Data Science Courses

Footer
About Us
  • Blog
  • Who is EDUCBA?
  • Sign Up
  • Live Classes
  • Corporate Training
  • Certificate from Top Institutions
  • Contact Us
  • Verifiable Certificate
  • Reviews
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  •  
Apps
  • iPhone & iPad
  • Android
Resources
  • Free Courses
  • Database Management
  • Machine Learning
  • All Tutorials
Certification Courses
  • All Courses
  • Data Science Course - All in One Bundle
  • Machine Learning Course
  • Hadoop Certification Training
  • Cloud Computing Training Course
  • R Programming Course
  • AWS Training Course
  • SAS Training Course

© 2022 - EDUCBA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THE CERTIFICATION NAMES ARE THE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

EDUCBA
Free Data Science Course

Hadoop, Data Science, Statistics & others

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

EDUCBA
Free Data Science Course

Hadoop, Data Science, Statistics & others

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Let’s Get Started

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Loading . . .
Quiz
Question:

Answer:

Quiz Result
Total QuestionsCorrect AnswersWrong AnswersPercentage

Explore 1000+ varieties of Mock tests View more

EDUCBA Login

Forgot Password?

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

This website or its third-party tools use cookies, which are necessary to its functioning and required to achieve the purposes illustrated in the cookie policy. By closing this banner, scrolling this page, clicking a link or continuing to browse otherwise, you agree to our Privacy Policy

EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Special Offer - MATLAB Training (3 Courses) Learn More