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GNU Octave

GNU Octave

This manual documents how to run, install and port GNU Octave, as well as its new features and incompatibilities, and how to report bugs. It corresponds to GNU Octave version 2.0.13.

Preface
1. A Brief Introduction to Octave		A brief introduction to Octave.
2. Getting Started
3. Data Types
4. Numeric Data Types
5. Strings
6. Data Structures
7. Variables
8. Expressions
9. Evaluation
10. Statements		Looping and program flow control.
11. Functions and Script Files
12. Error Handling
13. Input and Output
14. Plotting
15. Matrix Manipulation
16. Arithmetic
17. Linear Algebra
18. Nonlinear Equations
19. Quadrature
20. Differential Equations
21. Optimization
22. Statistics
23. Sets
24. Polynomial Manipulations
25. Control Theory
26. Signal Processing
27. Image Processing
28. Audio Processing
29. System Utilities
A. Tips and Standards
B. Known Causes of Trouble		If you have trouble installing Octave.
C. Installing Octave		How to configure, compile and install Octave.
D. Emacs Octave Support
E. Grammar
F. GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE		The GNU General Public License.
Concept Index		An item for each concept.
Variable Index		An item for each documented variable.
Function Index		An item for each documented function.
Operator Index		An item for each documented operator.

 -- The Detailed Node Listing ---

Preface

Acknowledgements
How You Can Contribute to Octave
Distribution

A Brief Introduction to Octave

1.1 Running Octave
1.2 Simple Examples
1.3 Conventions

Conventions

1.3.1 Fonts
1.3.2 Evaluation Notation
1.3.3 Printing Notation
1.3.4 Error Messages
1.3.5 Format of Descriptions

Format of Descriptions

1.3.5.1 A Sample Function Description
1.3.5.2 A Sample Command Description
1.3.5.3 A Sample Variable Description

Getting Started

2.1 Invoking Octave
2.2 Quitting Octave
2.3 Commands for Getting Help
2.4 Command Line Editing
2.5 How Octave Reports Errors
2.6 Executable Octave Programs
2.7 Comments in Octave Programs

Invoking Octave

2.1.1 Command Line Options
2.1.2 Startup Files

Command Line Editing

2.4.1 Cursor Motion
2.4.2 Killing and Yanking
2.4.3 Commands For Changing Text
2.4.4 Letting Readline Type For You
2.4.5 Commands For Manipulating The History
2.4.6 Customizing the Prompt
2.4.7 Diary and Echo Commands

Data Types

3.1 Built-in Data Types
3.2 User-defined Data Types
3.3 Object Sizes

Built-in Data Types

3.1.1 Numeric Objects
3.1.2 String Objects
3.1.3 Data Structure Objects

Numeric Data Types

4.1 Matrices
4.2 Ranges
4.3 Predicates for Numeric Objects

Matrices

4.1.1 Empty Matrices

Strings

5.1 Creating Strings
5.2 Searching and Replacing
5.3 String Conversions
5.4 Character Class Functions

Variables

7.1 Global Variables
7.2 Status of Variables
7.3 Summary of Built-in Variables
7.4 Defaults from the Environment

Expressions

8.1 Index Expressions
8.2 Calling Functions
8.3 Arithmetic Operators
8.4 Comparison Operators
8.5 Boolean Expressions
8.6 Assignment Expressions
8.7 Increment Operators
8.8 Operator Precedence

Calling Functions

8.2.1 Call by Value
8.2.2 Recursion

Boolean Expressions

8.5.1 Element-by-element Boolean Operators
8.5.2 Short-circuit Boolean Operators

Statements

10.1 The if Statement
10.2 The switch Statement
10.3 The while Statement
10.4 The for Statement
10.5 The break Statement
10.6 The continue Statement
10.7 The unwind_protect Statement
10.8 The try Statement
10.9 Continuation Lines

The for Statement

10.4.1 Looping Over Structure Elements

Functions and Script Files

11.1 Defining Functions
11.2 Multiple Return Values
11.3 Variable-length Argument Lists
11.4 Variable-length Return Lists
11.5 Returning From a Function
11.6 Function Files
11.7 Script Files
11.8 Dynamically Linked Functions
11.9 Organization of Functions Distributed with Octave

Input and Output

13.1 Basic Input and Output
13.2 C-Style I/O Functions

Basic Input and Output

13.1.1 Terminal Output
13.1.2 Terminal Input
13.1.3 Simple File I/O

C-Style I/O Functions

13.2.1 Opening and Closing Files
13.2.2 Simple Output
13.2.3 Line-Oriented Input
13.2.4 Formatted Output
13.2.5 Output Conversion for Matrices
13.2.6 Output Conversion Syntax
13.2.7 Table of Output Conversions
13.2.8 Integer Conversions
13.2.9 Floating-Point Conversions		Other Output Conversions::
13.2.10 Other Output Conversions
13.2.11 Formatted Input
13.2.12 Input Conversion Syntax
13.2.13 Table of Input Conversions
13.2.14 Numeric Input Conversions
13.2.15 String Input Conversions
13.2.16 Binary I/O
13.2.17 Temporary Files
13.2.18 End of File and Errors
13.2.19 File Positioning

Plotting

14.1 Two-Dimensional Plotting
14.2 Specialized Two-Dimensional Plots
14.3 Three-Dimensional Plotting
14.4 Plot Annotations
14.5 Multiple Plots on One Page

Matrix Manipulation

15.1 Finding Elements and Checking Conditions
15.2 Rearranging Matrices
15.3 Special Utility Matrices
15.4 Famous Matrices

Arithmetic

16.1 Utility Functions
16.2 Complex Arithmetic
16.3 Trigonometry
16.4 Sums and Products
16.5 Special Functions
16.6 Mathematical Constants

Linear Algebra

17.1 Basic Matrix Functions
17.2 Matrix Factorizations
17.3 Functions of a Matrix

Quadrature

19.1 Functions of One Variable
19.2 Orthogonal Collocation

Differential Equations

20.1 Ordinary Differential Equations
20.2 Differential-Algebraic Equations

Optimization

21.1 Quadratic Programming
21.2 Nonlinear Programming
21.3 Linear Least Squares

System Utilities

29.1 Timing Utilities
29.2 Filesystem Utilities
29.3 Controlling Subprocesses
29.4 Process, Group, and User IDs
29.5 Environment Variables
29.6 Current Working Directory
29.7 Password Database Functions
29.8 Group Database Functions
29.9 System Information

Tips and Standards

A.1 Writing Clean Octave Programs		Writing clean and robust programs.
A.2 Tips for Making Code Run Faster.		Making code run faster.
A.3 Tips for Documentation Strings		Writing readable documentation strings.
A.4 Tips on Writing Comments		Conventions for writing comments.
A.5 Conventional Headers for Octave Functions		Standard headers for functions.

Known Causes of Trouble with Octave

B.1 Actual Bugs We Haven't Fixed Yet		Bugs we will fix later.
B.2 Reporting Bugs
B.3 Have You Found a Bug?
B.4 Where to Report Bugs
B.5 How to Report Bugs
B.6 Sending Patches for Octave
B.7 How To Get Help with Octave

Reporting Bugs

B.3 Have You Found a Bug?
B.4 Where to Report Bugs		Where to send your bug report.
B.5 How to Report Bugs		How to report a bug effectively.
B.6 Sending Patches for Octave		How to send a patch for Octave.

Installing Octave

C.1 Notes
C.2 Installation Problems
C.3 Binary Distributions

Binary Distributions

C.3.1 Installing Octave from a Binary Distribution
C.3.2 Creating a Binary Distribution

Emacs Octave Support

D.1 Installing EOS
D.2 Using Octave Mode
D.3 Running Octave From Within Emacs
D.4 Using the Emacs Info Reader for Octave

Grammar

E.1 Keywords