6.4: Logical Functions

The first step is to create a logical function, which is a function that returns a logical value. The following function takes three input variables, a, b, and c, and returns true (1) if they form a Pythagorean triple and false (0) otherwise.

function res = is_pythagorean(a, b, c)
    if a^2 + b^2 == c^2
        res = 1;
    else
        res = 0;
    end
end

We can use this function like so:

>> is_pythagorean(3, 4, 5)
ans = 1

But we can write the same function more concisely, like this:

function res = is_pythagorean(a, b, c)
    res = a^2 + b^2 == c^2;
end

The result of the equality operator is a logical value, which we can assign directly to res.

Put this function in a file called is_pythagorean.m, so we can use it as part of our program.

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