matlab plotting a family of functions - matlab

Question

Generate a plot showing the graphs of
y=(2*a+1)*exp(-x)-(a+1)*exp(2*x)
in the range x ∈ <-2, 4> for all integer values of a between -3 and 3
I know how to make typical plot for 2 values and set a range on the axes, but how to draw the graph dependent on the parameter a?

Answer 1

To elaborate on Ben Voigt's comment: A more advanced technique would be to replace the for-loop with a call to bsxfun to generate a matrix of evaluations of M(i,j) = f(x(i),a(j)) and call plot with this matrix. Matlab will then use the columns of the matrix and plot each column with individual colors.
%%// Create a function handle of your function
f = #(x,a) (2*a+1)*exp(-x)-(a+1)*exp(2*x);
%%// Plot the data
x = linspace(-2, 4);
as = -3:3;
plot(x, bsxfun(f,x(:),as));
%%// Add a legend
legendTexts = arrayfun(#(a) sprintf('a == %d', a), as, 'uni', 0);
legend(legendTexts, 'Location', 'best');
You could also create the evaluation matrix using ndgrid, which explicitly returns all combinations of the values of x and as. Here you have to pay closer attention on properly vectorizing the code. (We were lucky that the bsxfun approach worked without having to change the original f.)
f = #(x,a) (2*a+1).*exp(-x)-(a+1).*exp(2*x); %// Note the added dots.
[X,As] = ndgrid(x,as);
plot(x, f(X,As))
However for starters, you should get familiar with loops.

Answer 2

You can do it using a simple for loop as follows. You basically loop through each value of a and plot the corresponding y function.
clear
clc
close all
x = -2:4;
%// Define a
a = -3:3;
%// Counter for legend
p = 1;
LegendText = cell(1,numel(a));
figure;
hold on %// Important to keep all the lines on the same plot.
for k = a
CurrColor = rand(1,3);
y= (2*k+1).*exp(-x)-(k+1).*exp(2.*x);
plot(x,y,'Color',CurrColor);
%// Text for legend
LegendText{p} = sprintf('a equals %d',k);
p = p+1;
end
legend(LegendText,'Location','best')
Which gives something like this:
You can customize the graph as you like. Hope that helps get you started!