MATLAB Toolbox to Python Mapping
Each MATLAB toolbox has a Python equivalent. These pages map every function to its Python counterpart with the correct import statement and usage notes.
Signal Processing
Filter design, spectral analysis, and signal transforms. The most commonly migrated MATLAB toolbox.
Statistics
Statistical distributions, hypothesis testing, and regression. Maps to scipy.stats and pandas.
Image Processing
Image filtering, segmentation, and morphological operations. Maps to scikit-image and OpenCV.
Optimization
Nonlinear optimization, root finding, and linear programming. Maps to scipy.optimize.
Control Systems
Transfer functions, state space models, and frequency domain analysis. Maps to python-control.
Deep Learning
MATLAB's neural network stack. No 1:1 function mapping — deep learning frameworks differ in their whole mental model. Use PyTorch if you prefer defining layers in code; TensorFlow/Keras if you prefer a declarative builder. Both are mature, free, and dominant in research.
Curve Fitting
Fit curves to data. scipy.optimize.curve_fit covers 95% of MATLAB's fit() usage; polyfit/polyval match directly. For interactive fitting, the MATLAB `cftool` GUI has no Python equivalent — but a Jupyter notebook with matplotlib widgets comes close.
Parallel Computing
MATLAB's parfor and spmd parallelize loops and distribute work across cores. Python's equivalent choices are joblib (simple, parallel map), multiprocessing (stdlib, explicit), or dask (for out-of-core data that doesn't fit in RAM). Pick joblib for drop-in parfor replacement.
Symbolic Math
Symbolic algebra — solve equations, simplify expressions, compute derivatives and integrals. sympy is a nearly-complete functional superset of MATLAB's Symbolic Math Toolbox, including LaTeX rendering in Jupyter. Most one-liners port directly.
Database
Connect to SQL databases and run queries. Python's SQL ecosystem is richer than MATLAB's: SQLAlchemy for ORM and connection management, pandas.read_sql for tabular queries, DBAPI drivers for each engine. Migration is usually an improvement.
Not seeing your toolbox?
The converter also detects Wavelets (PyWavelets), Bioinformatics (Biopython), and many less-common toolbox functions. If your code uses an unmapped function, the converter flags it with a # TODO:comment pointing to the right Python library — you'll never get silently broken code.