Getting Help from Matlab

It's important to know how we can use Matlab's Help system to give us more information about Matlab and the functions that we will want to use. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the help system so that you will know how to use it when you need it. There are multiple ways to access help for any Matlab command. One of the most common ways is to simply type help followed by the command name. This works well when you remember the name of the command and you want to see the results in the command window.

Type the following at the prompt in the Command Window and press Enter

    help plot

Notice that the help information is displayed in the Command Window. You may prefer to open a help browser window instead. Type doc followed by the command name open a new window with the help information.

    doc plot

If you don't remember the command name, you can use the help browser window to find the command you need. Here are several ways to open the help browser window without a command name.

  • Click on the Help Icon, which is a yellow question mark in toolbar in the toolbar near the top of the screen.
  • Type doc or helpbrowswer in the command window.
  • Select Help->MATLAB Help from the menu.
  • Select Desktop->Help from the menu.

Once the help browser window is open you can use the Help Navigator frame to find the information you need. There are several tabs you can use including the Index and Search tabs.