Error using plot Invalid first data argument.

When I try to run this code it gives me:"Error using plot

Invalid first data argument."

TCI=20;
q=52300;
cp=4182;
m=0:0.01:20;
TCO=q/cp*m+TCI
plot TCO

how to solve it?

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

MATLAB has a feature known as "command / function duality".

Any time you see a line of the form

WORD1 WORD2 .... WORDN

and there is no ( between WORD1 and the remainder of the expression, and WORD2 is not an assignment operator, then MATLAB understand that you are making a function call, and it converts the arguments into quoted strings.

Thus

plot TCO

is converted into the function call

plot('TCO')

and then you have the problem that 'TCO' is not a valid first argument for plot()

You see this kind of conversion a fair bit, but they tend to go unnoticed. For example,

hold on

is treated as a function call

hold('on')

There is no special processing to recognize hold specifically as a command; hold is not one of the special keywords known to MATLAB such as break or case : MATLAB just has a rule that says "no ( between what looks like a function name and what might be an argument? Convert the words into quoted strings and call the function with those!"

Anyhow, you want

plot(TCO)

but now you know more about why it happened.