A Wolfram Language Package for converting Mathematica syntax to MATLAB code. It was originally created by Harri Ojanen, but has been updated and modified for functionality and clarity.
Download ToMatlab.wl to somewhere permanent on your machine. You can download the file by clicking here. It is recommended that the file be placed witihin the Mathematica\Applications folder in your OS application data directory. On Windows, it can be accessed by pressing Windows + R, and entering %appdata%\Mathematica\Applications.
To use the package, open any Wolfram Mathematica file. Navigate to File -> Install.... When the dialog box opens, select Package as the type of item to install. For its source, select From File..., navigate to wherever you downloaded the file, and choose it. Leave all the other options as their default values, and click Ok.
NOTE: If you want to download a newer version of this package at a later date, you must follow all the above installation steps again. The packages do not update if you simply change the file.
Usage of the package is very simple. In whatever Mathematica script you are editing, add
Needs["ToMatlab`"];
to its beginning. Run it. When you wish to convert an output to MATLAB syntax, simply add // ToMatlab to the end of the line. In all cases, variable names are preserved if originally symbolic. Non-unicode characters, such as greek letters, are converted to their character names. For example, α will become alpha.
A simple use-case might be the conversion of a parametric equation for a circle to MATLAB.
r[u_] = {R*Cos[u], R*Sin[u], 0};
r[u] // ToMatlab
--> [R.*cos(u), R.*sin(u), 0];
By default, line outputs are suppressed. You can pass translation options by calling the function standardly.
r[u_] = {A*Cos[u], B*Sin[u], 0};
ToMatlab[r[u], SuppressOutput -> False]
--> [A.*cos(u), B.*sin(u), 0]
On occasion, Mathematica lists may want to be converted to MATLAB column matrices. In this case, you pass set the Transposed option to output a correct column vector.
r[u_] = {A*Cos[u], A*Sin[u], B*u};
ToMatlab[r[u], Transposed -> True, SuppressOutput -> False]
--> [A.*cos(u); A.*sin(u); B.*u]
If you find that your program repeats the Transposed or SuppressOutput, you can also set the default options for ToMatlab with SetOptions[ToMatlab, { Transposed -> True, SuppessOutput -> False }].
Currently, the only options supported are Transposed and SuppressOutput. If you have suggestions on additional configuration parameters, please submit an Issue or Pull Request.
NOTE: When converting lists to matrices, MATLAB requires uniform dimensionality. In the context of our parametric equation, the last column must be of size u if u is a matrix. In this case, making the last entry 0*u when in MATLAB will solve this problem. This applies to all columns or rows of any matrix. In the cases where a constant is output, it can be changed to a vector with the ones and size commands. If we wanted a column of dimensionality u and of value k, we could enter either k*ones(size(1, u)) or k*(u./u).
This program was adapted for the lives of the students taking Quantatative Engineering Analysis at Olin College.