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Every day, thousands of people ask questions on MATLAB Answers and many of these are about their code. Questions such as “How can I make this faster?”, “Why do I get this error message?” or “Why don’t I get the answer I expect?”. There’s often one crucial thing missing though – the code in question!

Most of the people who answer questions on MATLAB Answers are volunteers from the community. They are answering your questions for fun, to learn more about MATLAB or just because they like to be helpful. This is even true for people such as me who are MathWorks members of staff. It’s not part of my role to patrol the community, looking where I can help out. I do it because I like to do it.

Make it easier to help me help you.

Imagine you’re a volunteer, looking for something interesting to answer. What kind of questions are you more likely to dig into and help an anonymous stranger figure out?

In my case, I almost always focus on problems that I can easily reproduce. I rarely know the answer to any question off the top of my head and so what I like to do is start off with the problem you are facing and use the various tools available to me such as the profiler or debugger to figure it out. This is the fun of it all for me – I almost always learn something by doing this and you get helped out as a side effect!

The easier I can reproduce your issue, the more likely I am to get started. If I can’t reproduce anything and the answer isn’t immediately obvious to me I’ll just move onto the next question. One example that demonstrates this perfectly is a case where someone’s MATLAB code was running too slowly. All of the code was available so I could run it on my machine, profile it and provide a speed-up of almost 150x.

It's not always feasible or desirable to post all of your code in which case you need to come up with a minimal, reproducible example. What’s the smallest amount of code and data you can post that I can run on my machine and see what you see? This may be more work for you but it will greatly increase your chances of receiving an answer to your question.

General web search
75%
Specific web search for MLC content
12%
I search directly within MLC
3%
Combination of choices 2 & 3
9%
Neither (please leave a comment)
1%
813 votes
My school supplies me as a student
63%
School bought it (prof, staff,etc.)
10%
I bought my own (student, home, etc
5%
My company/gov't/organization
17%
I'm using a free trial right now.
4%
Gift from someone (e.g. Mathworks)
1%
17288 votes
Less than 1 hour
17%
1-2 hours
17%
2-3 hours
16%
3-4 hours
14%
More than 4 hours per day
36%
1174 votes
Image Analyst
Image Analyst
Last activity on 7 Apr 2022

White and gold
32%
Blue and black
42%
I can see it both ways, depending
16%
Not sure or something else/neither
10%
419 votes
English
38%
Other European language
20%
East Asian (Chinese, etc.)
11%
Indian (any)
12%
Spanish
5%
Other (Arabic, etc.)
14%
1117 votes
Within the past year
24%
1 - 5 years ago
38%
5.01 - 10 years ago
17%
10.01 - 21 years ago
12%
During the last century (1900's)
8%
1300 votes
A full prof. version w/all TB's
30%
A toolbox (TB) you don't have yet
6%
MATLAB swag (t-shirt, cap, mug,etc)
30%
Vacation at Cleve's in Arizona
12%
Full web site moderator privileges
2%
Free training class
20%
972 votes
R2021b (latest official release)
35%
R2020a - R2021a
30%
R2018a - R2019b
17%
R2016a - R2017b
9%
R2015b or earlier
8%
4244 votes
Satellite Communications Toolbox
53%
Mapping Toolbox
9%
Signal Processing Toolbox
14%
Navigation Toolbox
19%
Other (Explain in comments)
4%
2403 votes

VOTE on your favorite MATLAB images before Oct. 31 and win special edition T-shirts!

In just 2 weeks, 11,000 votes have been cast on 1200+ entries ! In the final week (Oct 25~Oct 31, 2021), we will add some fun and 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

Furthermore, for every vote an entry gets, MathWorks will donate $1 to Direct Relief (Maximum amount of $20 donated per entry; maximum of $20,000 in total).

Look at the entries , and if they make you smile, VOTE!

Stateflow states and transitions
27%
MATLAB Function block code
18%
Signal lines
9%
Configset settings
9%
MATLAB Live Script
36%
Other (Add a comment below)
0%
11 votes
App Designer
34%
GUIDE
12%
Built in funcs (inputdlg, uigetdir)
6%
Low level functions (uibutton,etc)
7%
Excel, Visual Basic, Python, etc.
4%
I don't build or use GUIs
38%
1170 votes
A bunch of quick, simple problems
16%
A structured, educational set
15%
Brain-teasers
16%
Random miscellany
3%
Something else
2%
What are Problem Groups?
49%
1777 votes

Categorical navigation is now available in MATLAB Answers.

  • Categories empower you to find, watch, and answer questions by topic and product, rather than product alone.
  • Individual answers have been categorized using an AI model written by MathWorks developers. Read more about our method here.

FAQ

1. What if I've bookmarked or subscribed to a product?

The links will continue to work but use a different filter mechanism.  We encourage you to try the new category filter, to find more questions in your topic of interest.

2. Can I still select a product on the question?

Yes - and product and tags are factored into the text analytics algorithm.  Correcting those fields should improve the nightly categorization. 

Categories are also shown in the Help Center.

Check out your favorite topic of interest and let us know how we're doing in the comments below!

What amazing images can be created with no more than 280 characters of MATLAB code? Check out the GALLERY of 700+ entries from the MATLAB Mini Hack contest.

VOTE on your favorite images and help fight the global pandemic! For every vote an entry gets, MathWorks will donate $1 to Direct Relief *.

How can I vote?

1) You need to log in with your MathWorks Account. If you do not have a MathWorks Account, you can create one at MathWorks sign in .

2) You can vote for an entry by clicking on the heart icon on an entry card or the vote button on the entry detail page.

*Maximum amount of $20 donated per entry; maximum of $20,000 donated based on the combined totals raised from the Treasure Hunt contest and the MATLAB Mini Hack contest.

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!

MATLAB Documentation
47%
Videos
14%
MOOCs
2%
MATLAB Central Community
14%
Examples
22%
Other(Explain in comments)
2%
2608 votes

R2021b is live! There are two new products, five major updates, and hundreds of other feature updates in this latest release. Download or access MATLAB Online to discover what’s new.

New Products

Major Updates

  • Lidar Toolbox - Use Lidar Viewer app to visualize, analyze, and preprocess lidar point clouds interactively
  • Simulink Code Inspector - Use Code Inspector contextual tab to check compatibility, inspect code and view results directly in the model
  • Simulink Control Design - Design Model Reference Adaptive Controllers
  • Symbolic Math Toolbox - Get guidance for symbolic workflows with next-step suggestions in MATLAB Live Editor
  • Wavelet Toolbox - Use wavelet analysis to process and extract features for signals and images for AI workflows

Check out our release highlight page for details.

Share your experience with the community

Are there any new features you find particularly useful? Are you trying the new product to solve a particular problem? Share your story with us no matter it’s big or small. We plan to publish those stories in the highlight channel so that community users can get more out of the new release. A good example is an article written by Adam Danz . If you are interested, contact me via email on my profile card.

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!

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