MATLAB: How to plot a vector

MATLABplotvector

hello,
I'm trying to plot the points of a vector to see if it looks like I want it to, but I get a blank figure. can anyone please advice me on what's wrong with my code?
% units %
lambda = 1; L = 10; N = 500; a = 1; V0 = 5;
% Create lattice points %
dx = L/N;
x = zeros([1 N]);
for n = 1:N
    x(n) = -L/2+(n-0.5)*dx;
end
% define potential %
Vho = zeros([1 N]);
for i = 1:N
    Vsw = -V0*(heaviside(x(i)+a/2)-heaviside(x(i)-a/2));
end
figure
plot(Vsw)
Thank you very much for your help!

Best Answer

"what's wrong with my code?"
  • you preallocate a variable named Vho which you never use again.
  • inside the loop you allocate to a variable named Vso , but you do not use any indexing, so on each loop iteration you simply overwrite Vso, thus leaving only the (scalar value) from the final iteration.
So even though you write that you are plotting a vector, if you actually take a look at Vso it is actually scalar (and plotting a scalar gives the appearance of an empty plot, although it isn't actually, just the default linespec does not include any point marker).
I fixed those mistakes (and replaced heaviside with a simple logical comparison):
Vsw = zeros(1,N);
for k = 1:N
    Vsw(k) = -V0*((x(k)+a/2)>0 - (x(k)-a/2)>0);
end
plot(Vsw,'-*')
Related Question