# Plotting Fourier series in MATLAB

If I have the complex coeffiecients of the Fourier series of a real signal given by

$$s(t)=\sum_{k=-\infty}^{\infty}c_k . e^{jk\omega_0t}$$ How can I plot an aproximation of the signal in MATLAB? I am doing some exercises about Fourier series, but I have no means to check if the coefficients I am finding are corrects.

Thanks

You need to put the signal into real form: $$f(t) = \sum_{k=-\infty}^\infty a_k\sin(kwt) + b_k\cos(kwt).$$
The integrals for these coefficients are $$a_k = \int_0^\infty f(t)\sin(kwt)dt \ \ \text{ and } b_k = \int_0^\infty f(t)\cos(kwt)dt$$ so your $c_k$ are $$c_k = \int_0^\infty f(t) e^{ikwt}dt = a_k + ib_k.$$
MATLAB can easily generate the sine and cosine functions and you can program a function which generates the sinusoids at different frequencies. Then just add the vectors of sines and cosines with multiplied by $a_k$ and $b_k$ respectively. Plotting this versus $t$ with your original function should show that you can increase the fidelity of the reconstruction by adding more terms and prove that your coefficients are correct.