Dot is used to mark decimal point for numbers : 3.25 and 0.001

used in conjunction with other operator symbols (* / \ ^ ') to form other operators. Element-by-element multiplicative operations are obtained using .* , .^ , ./ , .\ or .'. For example, C = A ./ B is the matrix with elements c(i,j) = a(i,j)/b(i,j). Kronecker product is noted .*. . Note that when dot follows a number it is alway prt of the number so 2.*x is evaluated as 2.0*x and 2 .*x is evaluated as (2).*x

Continuation mark. Two or more decimal points at the end of a line (or followed by a comment) causes the following line to be a continuation.

Continuation lines are handled by a preprocessor which builds a long logical line from a sequence of continuation lines. So the continuation marks can be used to cut a line at any point.

The following function foo:

 
function foo
  a=1
  disp(a),..
  disp('ok')
endfunction
 

is equivalent to:

 
function foo 
  a=1

  disp(a),disp('ok') 
endfunction
 

The logical line formed by physical line 3 and physical line 4 is built as if it was entirely written in the physical line 4 while physical line 3 would be empty. This is done this way because continuation marks can be put anywhere even inside an expression.