Data Import and Visualization Flashcards

What does setting 'Delimiter' to 'whitespace' do in MATLAB's 'readtable'?

Answer: Treats any whitespace (spaces/tabs) as column separators

Setting Delimiter to 'whitespace' tells readtable to split columns on any sequence of spaces or tabs, useful for fixed-width or space-delimited text files.

Which function would you use to display a matrix as a pseudocolor (heatmap) image in MATLAB?

Answer: imagesc

imagesc displays matrix data as a scaled color image, automatically scaling the colormap to span the full data range—ideal for heatmaps.

When calling 'uiimport' in MATLAB, what is the primary use case?

Answer: Launching a graphical Import Wizard dialog for interactive file import

uiimport opens MATLAB's Import Wizard, a GUI tool that lets users interactively preview and configure import options for various file formats.

What is the correct way to add a color bar to a MATLAB plot?

Answer: colorbar

The colorbar function adds a color scale indicator to the current axes, showing the mapping between data values and the colors displayed.

Which MATLAB option in 'readtable' tells the function to treat the first row as variable names?

Answer: Both A and C are valid

Both 'VariableNamesLine' (newer syntax) and 'ReadVariableNames',true (older syntax) instruct readtable to use the specified row as column headers.

What does the MATLAB command 'axis equal' do?

Answer: Sets the same data unit length for both axes so circles appear round

'axis equal' forces the x and y axes to have the same scale (data units per pixel), ensuring geometric shapes like circles are not distorted.

Which MATLAB function creates a 3D surface plot from X, Y, Z grid data?

Answer: surf

surf creates a shaded 3D surface using X, Y, Z grid matrices, with face colors representing Z values by default.