Basic structure of a for loop - matlab

Question

I am trying to write a MATLAB function that accepts non-integer, n, and then returns the factorial of it, n!. I am supposed to use a for loop. I tried with
"for n >= 0"
but this did not work. Is there a way how I can fix this?
I wrote this code over here but this doesn't give me the correct answer..
function fact = fac(n);
for fact = n
if n >=0
factorial(n)
disp(n)
elseif n < 0
disp('Cannot take negative integers')
break
end
end
Any kind of help will be highly appreciated.

Answer 1

You need to read the docs and I would highly recommend doing a basic tutorial. The docs state
for index = values
statements
end
So your first idea of for n >= 0 is completely wrong because a for doesn't allow for the >. That would be the way you would write a while loop.
Your next idea of for fact = n does fit the pattern of for index = values, however, your values is a single number, n, and so this loop will only have one single iteration which is obviously not what you want.
If you wanted to loop from 1 to n you need to create a vector, (i.e. the values from the docs) that contains all the numbers from 1 to n. In MATLAB you can do this easily like this: values = 1:n. Now you can call for fact = values and you will iterate all the way from 1 to n. However, it is very strange practice to use this intermediary variable values, I was just using it to illustrate what the docs are talking about. The correct standard syntax is
for fact = 1:n
Now, for a factorial (although technically you'll get the same thing), it is clearer to actually loop from n down to 1. So we can do that by declaring a step size of -1:
for fact = n:-1:1
So now we can find the factorial like so:
function output = fac(n)
output = n;
for iter = n-1:-1:2 %// note there is really no need to go to 1 since multiplying by 1 doesn't change the value. Also start at n-1 since we initialized output to be n already
output = output*iter;
end
end
Calling the builtin factorial function inside your own function really defeats the purpose of this exercise. Lastly I see that you have added a little error check to make sure you don't get negative numbers, that is good however the check should not be inside the loop!
function output = fac(n)
if n < 0
error('Input n must be greater than zero'); %// I use error rather than disp here as it gives clearer feedback to the user
else if n == 0
output = 1; %// by definition
else
output = n;
for iter = n-1:-1:2
output = output*iter;
end
end
end

Answer 2

I don't get the point, what you are trying to do with "for". What I think, what you want to do is:
function fact = fac(n);
if n >= 0
n = floor(n);
fact = factorial(n);
disp(fact)
elseif n < 0
disp('Cannot take negative integers')
return
end
end
Depending on your preferences you can replace floor(round towards minus infinity) by round(round towards nearest integer) or ceil(round towards plus infinity). Any round operation is necessary to ensure n is an integer.