Best book for beginners

Hi all, this year I have started University and I would like to learn about Matlab. I have never seen nothing about this programme, so I ask you, which book do you suggest for beginners? I'm Italian but I want study English more as possible, so I prefer English books.

I see this book: Matlab for Beginners: A Gentle Approach

How is it?

Regards, Alessandro

Answer 1

[Mohammad Abouali]

I think the best starting point is MATLAB Primer by MATHWORKS:

http://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2014b/pdf_doc/matlab/getstart.pdf

Pretty much you can read it in one weekend and gives you a good kick-start.

It is written by mathworks. It is free. Don't let the number of pages scare you. The spacing between the lines is a lot and there are a lot of figures and white spaces. So despit having 198 pages, you can read it in one weekend. (well that's what I did the first time I started using MATLAB and next week I had a meeting with my adviser all my plots and analysis was done in MATLAB; So, I really mean it, it is possible to get a good start using MATLAB starting with "MATLAB Primer").

[per isakson]

... and in addition to the Primer: MATLAB Tutorials

[linofex]

Hi, thank you for the reply, I read thirty pages and I think that is a useful guide for my studies. What about the book that I have linked? I prefer paper books. I have got the 2011 version of matlab, the guide is for 2014, but it is the same, right?

regards, Alessandro

[per isakson]

"Matlab for Beginners: A Gentle Approach" &nbsp has high user ratings at Amazon.com and based on browsing "Look Inside" I'll say it's good for beginners to programming. Those reviewers giving less than five stars say something like "but it is just TOO basic for me".

The basic stuff of Matlab hasn't changed much over the last several years. A decent support for Object Oriented Programming was added in 2008 and R2014b includes improved graphics. However, neither counts as basic stuff.

[Mohammad Abouali]

Most of the stuff in "MATLAB Primer" should also apply for the 2011 version.

However, if you want documentation for older versions of MATLAB you can get them form:

http://www.mathworks.com/help/doc-archives.html

I am also like you. I like hard copy of documentation better than the online version (Actually it was a scientific paper on this matter that people understand better from reading a printed version than the online version).

Anyway, if you like to print the documentation you can get the PDF version of it and print yourself. Just scroll down the page somewhere there there would be a link to the PDFs.

[linofex]

Sorry if I reply just now, but in these 2 months I have had the exams and so the time was short. Thank everybody for the useful replies. I saved few pdf, but I didn't decide if buy the book.

Regards, Alessandro

Answer 2

[SidSux]

Amazon has a nice $3 e-book for complete beginners:

http://www.amazon.com/Matlab-Newbies-essentials-Siddhartha-Verma-ebook/dp/B01571G7CQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442996573&sr=8-1&keywords=matlab+for+newbies

Answer 3

[Catherine puspita]

I highly recommend the following Matlab: A Practical Introduction to Programming and Problem Solvingbook . This book is very easy to understand and shows you an excellent way to learn Matlab on your own. It's a very good coverage of the basics, more advanced topics with plenty of trial examples at the end of each chapter and is a great book which presents programming concepts and MATLAB built-in functions side-by-side.

[Matthew Hairston]

+1 Know of any similar style books for Python, R, etc.? Thanks in advance!

Answer 4

[Christopher Grace]

Amazing answers in this thread!

I agree, Matlab from a book will help you learn properly and save time.

I've found a lovely list of the best Matlab books .

Answer 5

[hami paper]

I suggest you look at the books and educational resources here, many of which are in the form of books and videos and can help you get started.

[Debra Bastian]

Thanks for the recommended books - I'll be sure to add them to my list

Answer 6

[Image Analyst]

Try this: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/8026-best-way-s-to-master-matlab

Answer 7

[muhammad alli]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GEZN09C

[Walter Roberson]

The reference is to a book "Computational Physics: A Guide For Beginners Looking To Speed Up Their Computation" that appears to have been written by the poster.