Matlab if statements in physics

What does the condition mean in Matlab, where x and y are the displacement that measures from [-1,1]

if (abs(x)>=1)
x=sign(x);
end
if (abs(y)>=1)
y=sign(y);
end

[Walter Roberson]

The code is checking to see if the values are out of range and if so moving them to the boundary.

[Momo]

you mean x and y will equal 1 or -1 if their values are out of the range? as Mr. James said,right?

Answer 1

[James Tursa]

You can easily run the code to see that it clips the values outside of [-1,1] so that they stay in this range. But it appears there is a typo in the y code. This line

x=sign(y);

should probably be this instead (note the y on the lhs)

y = sign(y);

[Momo]

what do you mean by "clips the values outside of interval"?

[James Tursa]

If x > 1, it will assign x = 1

If x <-1, it will assign x = -1

If x is between -1 and 1, it will leave x unchanged.

Same for y (as long as you fix the typo)

[Momo]

Thank you so much.