Emphasizing problem-solving skills throughout this very successful book, Stephen Chapman introduces the MATLAB language and shows how to use it to solve typical technical problems. The book teaches MATLAB as a technical programming language, showing students how to write clean, efficient, and well-documented programs. It makes no pretense at being a complete description of all of MATLAB's hundreds of functions. Instead, it teaches students how to locate any desired function with MATLAB's extensive online help facilities. Overall, students develop problem-solving skills and are equipped for future courses and careers with the power of MATLAB.

Benefits:

• NEW! Completely updated to MATLAB 7.0.
• Emphasis on Top-Down Design Methodology: The book introduces a top-down methodology in Chapter 3, and then uses it consistently throughout the rest of the book. This methodology encourages a student to think about the proper design of a program before beginning to code.
• Emphasis on Functions: The book emphasizes the use of functions to logically decompose tasks into smaller subtasks.
• Emphasis on MATLAB Tools: The book teaches the proper use of MATLAB's built-in tools to make programming and debugging easier.
• Good Programming Practice Boxes: These boxes highlight good programming practices when they are introduced for the convenience of the student.
• Programming Pitfall Boxes: These boxes highlight common errors so that they can be avoided.
• Coverage of Data Structures: Chapter 7 contains a detailed discussion of MATLAB's data structures, including sparse arrays, cell arrays, and structure arrays.