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After 7 weeks of fun, the MATLAB Central community 20th anniversary contests have concluded! Together, we shared the art of MATLAB and contributed to the battle against the global pandemic. See the fantastic stats below.

MATLAB Mini Hack Winners - Week 4

In Week 4, we invited the MATLAB Graphics team to help judge the entries. As the authors of the MATLAB functions used in every entry, they made sure every entry selected used a unique graphics function or technique from the other winners. Here are their choices:

1. Umbrellas by Shanshan Wang

Comment: Cool use of 'swarmchart' to make art from distributions; Only use of one of our newest graphics functions

2. Happy Sheep by Victoria

Comment: Cute!

3. Alien Giant by Jenny Bosten

Comment: Original idea, well textured, and efficient code

4. 3D Ultrasound by Adam Danz

Comment: Replicate source material very well. Effective use of lighting and material. Overall, impressive to produce this image given the limitation

5. Sunset in the Savanna by Sebastian Kraemer

Comment: Looks cool! Nice mix of 'image', 'fill' and 'scatter' commands.

6. Night Flight by Ratul Das

Comment: original; clever use of 'rectangle'

7. Lantern #2 by Tim

Comment: Nice use of 'getframe' to create a texture for 'surf' for a compelling picture

8. Geometric Design (6) by Daniel Pereira

Comment: Looks like some walls at MathWorks

9. Rosette 1313 by Alex P

Comment: Looks cool! Nice use of 'pcolor'

10. Mandelbrot contour by Sumihiro

Comment: Best use of contour!

11. Aim High by Murty PLN

Comment: Largest number of unique graphics objects for the Mini Hack (plot, patch,stairs,stem,text)

In the spirit of Mini Hack, the MATLAB Graphics team also created several cool graphs about the contest. Facing a similar space limit, I have picked only 2.

Bonus Prize Winners - Week 4

Congratulations to our 5 winners for their dual participation in the Treasure Hunt and the MATLAB Mini Hack. Yogiraj Bhagavatula, Pramod Devireddy, Devika U, FruitsLord, and Augusto Mazzei.

Lucky voters - Week 4

Congratulations to the lucky voters who cast the 12000th vote (Gordg Garin), 12500th vote (Eder Esteban Reyes), 13000th vote (Peram Balakrishna), 13500th vote (Emerson Nithiyaraj), 14000th vote(Sekar Naai), 14500th vote (Arika Amasarao), 15000th vote (Nikita Yakovlev), 15500th vote (Kesava Rao), and 16000th vote (Kundi Chandra Sekhar).

Grant Prize Winners

Finally, after validating entries and votes, we have picked the grand prize winners. We appreciate the time and effort you spent and the awesome entries you created. Huge congratulations!

1. Top 10 Authors of most voted entries

Each author will receive 5 customized T-shirts with the winning image and your name on the back of the T-shirts. You can choose the sizes and share them with your family or friends.

2. Top 10 Authors with most total votes

Top 10 contestants on the leaderboard will each get an Amazon gift card. The top 3 winners on the leaderboard will also earn special virtual badges.

  • Ciro Bermudez
  • KSSV
  • Juan Villacrés
  • Murty PLN
  • Pink_panther
  • Jenny Bosten
  • KARUPPASAMYPANDIYAN M
  • Jr
  • Adam Danz
  • Victoria

On behalf of the MATLAB Central community team, we thank you for joining our celebration of the MATLAB Central community’s 20th anniversary with us in the past 7 weeks. We hope you enjoyed these contests and look forward to seeing you in next year’s contests. Question: “What contests would you like to see next?”

In Week 3, we passed several amazing milestones! 1,000 Participants in the Treasure Hunt , 1,000 ENTRIES and 10,000 votes in the MATLAB Mini Hack , and $10,000 charity donation from both contests! I recommend you read Ned Gulley’s recent blog post , which is a fantastic summary of the contest highlights.

During the last week of this contest, we strongly encourage you to inspire your colleagues, classmates, or friends to participate by either VOTING or CREATING entries. To add some fun, we will give out a T-shirt to LUCKY voters who cast:

  • The 12000th vote
  • The 12500th vote
  • The 13000th vote
  • The 13500th vote
  • The 14000th vote
  • The 14500th vote
  • The 15000th vote
  • The 15500th vote
  • The 16000th vote

MATLAB Mini Hack Winners - Week 3

We’ve received many creative entries for our new categories. Congratulations to the winners! Each of you won a special edition T-shirt:

Greg, entry: better Christmas tree , category: Holidays

Ratul Das, entry: To All Pepperoni Lovers , category: Food

Peter Stampfli, entry: Louis V , category: Fractals

Adrien Leygue, entry: Stained Glass membrane , category: MathWorks Logo

Spencer Miesner, entry: ~Breathe~ , category: Album Cover

Stewart Thomas, entry: The only QR code you ever need , category: Black & White

Sebastian Kraemer, entry: sun , category: 3D

Jenny Bosten, entry: The joys of spring , category: Plant

Adam Danz, entry: MATropolis rooftop view , category: Illustration

Eric Ogier, entry: UFO , category: Fun

Simon Thor, entry: Mandelbrot in 52 characters , category: Concise

Tim, entry: Low Tide , category: Realism

Bonus Prize Winners - Week 3

We are giving out additional giveaways to participants of both the Treasure Hunt and the MATLAB Mini Hack . Congratulations to our 5 winners. Each of you has also won a special edition T-shirt.

  • Teodo
  • Dyuman Joshi
  • Shanshan Wang
  • Nirvik Sinha
  • Felipe Torres

Week 4

After the contest ends, we need additional time to validate entries for Grand Prize and Weekly Prize. The winners are expected to be announced within a couple of days after the contest ends. Thank you in advance for your patience.

In Week 2, the contest entered a new phase – the voting started! As of today, 6000+ votes have been cast on almost 1000 entries in the GALLERY! As a result, YOU raised $5000+ for Direct Relief in addition to the $2400 raised via the Treasure Hunt contest! We encourage you to continue sharing the contest to inspire others to participate by either voting or creating new entries so we can donate even more!

MATLAB Mini Hack Winners - Week 2

I won’t say judging is getting easier in Week 2 - amazing entries keep coming in every day. Congratulations to the winners! Each of you has won a special edition T-shirt.

Bonus Prize Winners - Week 2

We are giving out additional giveaways to participants of both the Treasure Hunt and the MATLAB Mini Hack . Congratulations to our 5 winners. Each of you has also won a special edition T-shirt.

  • Simon Thor
  • Eric Ogier
  • David Hill
  • Lyes Demri
  • Highphi

What’s new in Week 3?

In Week 3, we will add several new categories in which we hope to see more creative entries:

  • Holidays
  • Album covers
  • Food & Drinks
  • MathWorks logo
  • Fractals

In just one week, 500+ amazing entries were created. Math rocks and you rock!

Help us show the world the beauty of mathematics by sharing your work with your friends, classmates, or colleagues. You can also help fight the global pandemic by voting. For each vote, MathWorks will donate $1 to Direct Relief. See the Voting FAQs below for details.

MATLAB Mini Hack Winners - Week 1

Let’s start by saying: your awesome work made our judging VERY HARD! We came up with several categories with one winner each. Congratulations to the winners! Each of you won a special edition T-shirt:

Bonus Prize Winners - Week 1

As we announced last week, we are giving additional giveaways to participants of both the Treasure Hunt contest and the MATLAB Mini Hack contest . Congratulations to our 5 winners. Each of you also won a special edition T-shirt

  • Jan Orwat
  • warnerchang
  • Davide OLIVIERI
  • Daniel Niblett
  • KARUPPASAMYPANDIYAN M

Voting FAQs:

Q1: Who can vote?

Anyone with a MathWorks account can vote.

Q2: How many times can I vote?

There here is no limit to the number of votes you can cast. Vote for as many entries as you like (one vote per entry).

Q3: How do my votes increase MathWorks’ charity donation?

For every vote an entry gets, we will donate $1 to Direct Relief with a maximum amount of $20 donated per entry. MathWorks will donate up to a maximum of $20,000 based on the combined totals raised by task participation in the Treasure Hunt and voting in the MATLAB Mini Hack .

Q4. How do I win?

At the end of the contest, the top 10 participants on the leaderboard will each get an Amazon gift card and the top 3 will earn special badges. The 10 highest voted entries will win 5 customized T-shirts. See the full contest details.

Every week, we will also award surprise prizes for more fun.

Note that MathWorks staff are NOT eligible for prizes.

Q5: How do votes on my entries determine my rank on the leaderboard?

The total number of votes on ALL of your entries determines your rank on the leaderboard.

Q6: Do votes on remixed entries add votes to the original entry?

No. We count only direct votes on an entry.

Q7: Is the code (also) automatically compared to earlier submissions to determine the remix tree?

No. You have to remix an entry.

Just in 2 days since the contest started, we already have 200+ awesome entries in the MATLAB Mini Hack contests. We are excited to see so many talented and creative community members enjoying the contest and learning from each other.

If you haven’t created your entry, try remixing an entry you like. Make some SMALL changes and see what it would look like. Remix is highly encouraged in this contest.

If you haven’t entered the Treasure Hunt contest, give it a try. Your participation will not only win you a prize but also bump up MathWorks’ donation to a charity organization that fights the global pandemic.

Reminder:

  • Voting will start next Monday.
  • Weekly surprise giveaways will also be announced next Monday. Still time left to create your entries, original or remixed!

As part of MATLAB Central’s 20 year anniversary celebration, we created the MATLAB Mini Hack . The contest starts today on Oct. 4th!

What to do?

Generate an interesting image using up to 280 characters of MATLAB code.

Who can play?

Participants across all skill levels are welcome. Create original entries of your own code, remix others’ entries and make them your own, or simply vote on ENTRIES you love!

How to win prizes?

Those at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the contest will win up to $300 Amazon gift cards, 5 customized T-shirts, or special badges. Visit the prizes section on the contest page for more information.

To add more fun, we will award RANDOM PRIZES that every participant has a chance to win.

  • Each week, we will pick 5 players who participate in both the Treasure Hunt and MATLAB Mini Hack .
  • Each week, we will have different surprise giveaways.

Important Notes

  • The first week (Oct. 4th, 2021 ~ Oct. 10th 2021) is for creating entries only. Voting starts on Week 2.
  • Make sure you follow the contests (click the ‘follow the contests’ button on the top) to get notified when prizes are awarded and of other important announcements. We hope you are the winner!

Join our celebration of the 20th anniversary of MATLAB Central community! You are invited to enter 2 contests - A Treasure Hunt and a MATLAB Mini Hack - to have fun and win prizes.

How to Play

  • In the Treasure Hunt, complete 10 fun tasks to explore the ‘treasures’ in the community.
  • In the MATLAB Mini Hack, use up to 280 characters of MATLAB code to generate an interesting image. Simply vote for the entries that you like or share your own entries to gain votes.

Prizes

You will have opportunities to win compelling prizes, including special edition T-shirts, customized T-shirts, Amazon gift cards, and virtual badges. Your participation will also bump up our charity donations.

Ready to participate?

Visit the community contests space and choose the contest you’d like to enter. Note that:

  • You need a MathWorks account to participate. If you don’t have a MathWorks account, you can create one at MathWorks sign in .
  • Make sure you follow the contests (click the ‘follow the contests’ button on the top) to get notified for prize information and important announcements.

For the full contest rules, prizes, and terms, see details here .

We hope you enjoy the contests and win big prizes. NOW, LET THE CELEBRATION BEGIN!

Let's say MathWorks decides to create a MATLAB X release, which takes a big one-time breaking change that abandons back-compatibility and creates a more modern MATLAB language, ditching the unfortunate stuff that's around for historical reasons. What would you like to see in it?
I'm thinking stuff like syntax and semantics tweaks, changes to function behavior and interfaces in the standard library and Toolboxes, and so on.
(The "X" is for major version 10, like in "OS X". Matlab is still on version 9.x even though we use "R20xxa" release names now.)
What should you post where?
Wishlist threads (#1 #2 #3 #4 #5): bugs and feature requests for Matlab Answers
Frustation threads (#1 #2): frustrations about usage and capabilities of Matlab itself
Missing feature threads (#1 #2): features that you whish Matlab would have had
Next Gen threads (#1): features that would break compatibility with previous versions, but would be nice to have
@anyone posting a new thread when the last one gets too large (about 50 answers seems a reasonable limit per thread), please update this list in all last threads. (if you don't have editing privileges, just post a comment asking someone to do the edit)
Is anyone else disappointed with uifigures? It seems apparent that these will eventually replace traditional figures, but there is still so much that doesn't quite work. I've tinkered with uifigures since their introduction in release 2016a, but even in 2020a I can't reliably export a uifigure to a graphics file. Sure it works sometimes, but not if a uipanel is present. The exportgraphics command is not as powerful as the print command, leaving some graphic formats (such as *.svg and *.eps) unsupported. How do you generate graphic files of a specific size? You can't even use subplots without overriding the default AutoResizeChildren setting!
Everything with uifigures seems to be slower and less stable than the figure variant. App Designer is much better than GUIDE, but that is not exactly high praise. I would rather generate "apps" programatically across several files instead of dealing with a single-file class definition containing 1000+ lines.
Where is this transition going? MATLAB graphics are moving away from Java in favor of JavaScript, and I'm not sure that we are at all ready for that.

Happy New Year, everyone! We hope you enjoyed the Cody contest in 2020, learned new MATLAB skills, and made a friend or two. While the 2020 contest has concluded, the fun and learning never end.

Please take the 1-minute survey to talk about your experience (only 2 required questions). Our goal is to make future contests better and more appealing to you, so your feedback is critical to us.

Thank you in advance and hope to see you again in the 2021 contest.

Chen Lin
Chen Lin
Last activity on 1 Oct 2020

Cody Contest 2020 Starts Today!

We are excited to announce that Cody Contest 2020 starts today! Again, the rule is simple - solve any problem and rate its difficulty. If you have any question, please visit our FAQs page first. Want to know your ranking? Check out the contest leaderboard .

Happy problem-solving! We hope you are a winner.

Chen Lin
Chen Lin
Last activity on 23 Jan 2021

Cody Contest 2020 FAQs

Below are some FAQs for the Cody contest 2020. If you have any additional questions, ask your questions by replying to this post. We will keep updating the FAQs.

Q1: If I rate a problem I solved before the contest, will I still get a raffle ticket?

A: Yes. You can rate any problem you have solved, whether it was before or during the contest period.

Q2: When will I receive the contest badges that I've earned?

A: All badges will be awarded after the contest ends.

Q3: How do I know if I’m the raffle winner?

A: If you are a winner, we will contact you to get your name and mailing address. You can find the list of winners on the Cody contest page .

Q4: When will I receive my T-shirt or hat?

A: You will typically receive your prize within a few weeks. It might take longer for international shipping.

Q5: I'm new to Cody. If I have some questions about using Cody, how can I get help?

A: You can ask your question by replying this post. Other community users might help you and we will also monitor the threads. You might also find answers here .

Q6: What do I do if I have a question about a specific problem?

A: If the problem description is unclear, the test suite is broken, or similar concerns arise, post your question(s) as a comment on the specific problem page. If you are having a hard time solving a problem, you can post a comment to your solution attempt (after submitting it). However, do not ask other people to solve problems for you.

Q7: If I find a bug or notice someone is cheating/spamming during the contest, how can I report it?

A: Use Web Site Feedback . Select "MATLAB Central" from the category list.

Q8: Why can't I rate a problem?

A: To rate a problem, you must solve that problem first and have at least 50 total points.

Meta threads have a tendency to grow large. This has happened several times before (the wishlist threads #1 #2 #3 #4 #5, and 'What frustrates you about MATLAB?' #1 and #2).
No wonder that a thread from early 2011 has also kept growing. After just under a decade there are (at time of writing) 119 answers, making the page slow to load and navigate (especially on mobile). So after a friendly nudge; here is a new thread for the things that are missing from Matlab.
Same question: are there things you think should be possible in Matlab, but aren't? What things are possible with software packages similar to Matlab that Matlab would benefit from? (note that you can also submit an enhancement request through support, although I suspect they will be monitoring activity on this thread as well)
What should you post where?
Wishlist threads (#1 #2 #3 #4 #5): bugs and feature requests for Matlab Answers
Frustation threads (#1 #2): frustations about usage and capabilities of Matlab itself
Missing feature threads (#1 #2): features that you whish Matlab would have had
Next Gen threads (#1): features that would break compatibility with previous versions, but would be nice to have
@anyone posting a new thread when the last one gets too large (about 50 answers seems a reasonable limit per thread), please update this list in all last threads. (if you don't have editing privileges, just post a comment asking someone to do the edit)
Rik
Rik
Last activity on 4 Nov 2022

How to create a GUI

There are multiple ways to create a graphical user interface (GUI) in Matlab. Which method is the best depends on multiple factors: the complexity of the project, to what extent it should be a long-term solution, on what releases your GUI should work, your available time, your skill level, and probably other factors I'm forgetting.
To keep the thread clear I'll attempt to provide a short outline a few ways in this question, and leave the details for the answers. (@anyone with editing privileges: feel free to update the section below if I missed something important and am slow in editing this question)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GUIDE
GUIDE is probably the first tool new users will encounter. It is very useful for quickly putting something together, but it is otherwise fairly limited. It requires maintaining (and distributing) both a .m and a .fig file. Note that the GUIDE environment will be removed in a future release. After GUIDE is removed, existing GUIDE apps will continue to run in Matlab but they will not be editable in GUIDE. If you're starting a new GUI, don't use GUIDE. If you're updating an existing GUIDE GUI, migrate it to AppDesigner. In R2021a the first step for this removal was taken: all templates except the blank template have been removed.
GUILT
Although I haven't had a detailed look myself, it seems a list like this is not complete without at least mentioning the GUI Layout Toolbox, which is available on the file exchange and offers a lot of customization options.
Programmatic GUIs
You can bypass GUIDE and use the normal figures and functions like uicontrol to build GUIs from code. This makes the design less visual, but more flexible for future additions.
App Designer
The official successor to GUIDE, AppDesigner is not based on functions, but works similar to a class. It uses uifigure and mostly uses graphical elements that are incompatible with 'normal' GUIs that are created with a figure (or .fig).
This is the 5th installment of the wish-list and bug report thread.
This topic is the follow on to the first Wish-list for MATLAB Answer sections and second MATLAB Answers Wish-list #2 (and bug reports). The third started out as New design of the forum - grey on white and the fourth MATLAB Answers Wish-list #4 (and bug reports) is also growing so large it is slow to load and navigate.
Same idea as the previous ones: one wish (or bug report) per answer, so that people can vote their wishes.
What should you post where?
Wishlist threads (#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6): bugs and feature requests for Matlab Answers
Frustation threads (#1 #2): frustations about usage and capabilities of Matlab itself
Missing feature threads (#1 #2): features that you whish Matlab would have had
Next Gen threads (#1): features that would break compatibility with previous versions, but would be nice to have
@anyone posting a new thread when the last one gets too large (about 50 answers seems a reasonable limit per thread), please update this list in all last threads. (if you don't have editing privileges, just post a comment asking someone to do the edit)
Summary:
Dynamically accessing variable names can negatively impact the readability of your code and can cause it to run slower by preventing MATLAB from optimizing it as well as it could if you used alternate techniques. The most common alternative is to use simple and efficient indexing.
Explanation:
Sometimes beginners (and some self-taught professors) think it would be a good idea to dynamically create or access variable names, the variables are often named something like these:
  • matrix1, matrix2, matrix3, matrix4, ...
  • test_20kmh, test_50kmh, test_80kmh, ...
  • nameA, nameB, nameC, nameD,...
Good reasons why dynamic variable names should be avoided:
There are much better alternatives to accessing dynamic variable names:
Note that avoiding eval (and assignin, etc.) is not some esoteric MATLAB restriction, it also applies to many other programming languages as well:
MATLAB Documentation:
If you are not interested in reading the answers below then at least read MATLAB's own documentation on this topic Alternatives to the eval Function, which states "A frequent use of the eval function is to create sets of variables such as A1, A2, ..., An, but this approach does not use the array processing power of MATLAB and is not recommended. The preferred method is to store related data in a single array." Data in a single array can be accessed very efficiently using indexing.
Note that all of these problems and disadvantages also apply to functions load (without an output variable), assignin, evalin, and evalc, and the MATLAB documentation explicitly recommends to "Avoid functions such as eval, evalc, evalin, and feval(fname)".
The official MATLAB blogs explain why eval should be avoided, the better alternatives to eval, and clearly recommend against magically creating variables. Using eval comes out at position number one on this list of Top 10 MATLAB Code Practices That Make Me Cry. Experienced MATLAB users recommend avoiding using eval for trivial code, and have written extensively on this topic.
Matt Tearle
Matt Tearle
Last activity on 6 Mar 2023

MATLAB poems -- let's hear 'em!

Inspired by Chad Greene's " MATLAB jokes or puns " thread, and in celebration of 15 years of the MathWorks Community site, does anyone out there want to share their poetic creativity? Limericks, haiku, sonnets... Go!
And to start off, my (slightly off-topic) submission on Chad's thread:
There was an old math guy called Cleve
who, while teaching, a pipe-dream conceived:
of a language so clean
you can say what you mean!
From our suffering we've all been relieved.
Edit: due to the increasing size of this thread, it is continued here.
What should you post where?
Wishlist threads (#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6): bugs and feature requests for Matlab Answers
Frustation threads (#1 #2): frustations about usage and capabilities of Matlab itself
Missing feature threads (#1 #2): features that you whish Matlab would have had
Next Gen threads (#1): features that would break compatibility with previous versions, but would be nice to have
@anyone posting a new thread when the last one gets too large (about 50 answers seems a reasonable limit per thread), please update this list in all last threads. (if you don't have editing privileges, just post a comment asking someone to do the edit)
This topic is for features you would like to see for the MATLAB Answers facility itself, and also for bug reports about the MATLAB Answers facility.
This topic is the follow on to the first Wish-list for MATLAB Answer sections and second MATLAB Answers Wish-list #2 (and bug reports). Those grew large enough to become unwieldy; and Mathworks has made enough changes to make a number of the past points no longer of relevance. More recently there was the limited purpose New design of the forum - grey on white which turned into a bug and wish list; I have renamed that for continuity.
I suggest one wish (or bug report) per answer, so that people can vote their wishes.
The community is very helpful, yet I feel really powerless that I cannot find the appropriate way to code, nor find the problems with the codes I have written. I have read numerous books on MATLAB, mostly related with science and engineering applications. Any advice to improve would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.