Symbolic Variables, Expressions, Functions, and Preferences

Create symbolic variables, expressions, functions, and set preferences

Symbolic Math Toolbox™ introduces a special data type — symbolic objects. This data type includes symbolic numbers, symbolic variables, symbolic expressions, and symbolic functions. It also includes vectors, matrices, and multidimensional arrays of symbolic numbers, variables, expressions, and functions. Using symbolic objects in computations indicates that MATLAB^® must perform these computations analytically instead of numerically. Symbolic computations are exact and are not prone to round-off errors. For more details about symbolic objects, see Use Symbolic Objects to Represent Mathematical Objects. For a quick guide on creating symbolic variables, expressions, and functions, see Create Symbolic Numbers, Variables, and Expressions and Create Symbolic Functions.

Functions

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Create Symbolic Variables, Expressions, and Functions

`syms`	Create symbolic scalar variables and functions, and matrix variables and functions
`sym`	Create symbolic variables, expressions, functions, matrices
`symfun`	Create symbolic functions
`symmatrix`	Create symbolic matrix variable (Since R2021a)
`symmatrix2sym`	Convert symbolic matrix variable to array of scalar variables (Since R2021a)
`symfunmatrix`	Create symbolic matrix function (Since R2022a)
`symfunmatrix2symfun`	Convert symbolic matrix function to symbolic function (Since R2022a)
`str2sym`	Evaluate string representing symbolic expression
`fold`	Combine (fold) vector using function
`piecewise`	Conditionally defined expression or function

Find Symbolic Variables and Terms

`symvar`	Find symbolic variables in symbolic input
`argnames`	Input variables of symbolic function or matrix function
`formula`	Return body of symbolic function or matrix function
`has`	Check if expression contains particular subexpression
`children`	Subexpressions or terms of symbolic expression

Determine Symbolic Types

`symType`	Determine type of symbolic object
`symFunType`	Determine functional type of symbolic object
`isSymType`	Determine whether symbolic object is specific type
`hasSymType`	Determine whether symbolic object contains specific type
`findSymType`	Find symbolic subobjects of specific type
`mapSymType`	Apply function to symbolic subobjects of specific type

Check for Infinity and NaN

`isfinite`	Check whether symbolic array elements are finite
`isinf`	Check whether symbolic array elements are infinite
`isnan`	Check whether symbolic array elements are `NaN`s

Set Preferences

sympref Set symbolic preferences

Topics

Create Symbolic Numbers, Variables, and Expressions
Use symbolic values and variables to perform analytical calculations.
Create Symbolic Functions
Use symbolic functions that accept symbolic inputs for analytical calculations.
Create Symbolic Matrices
Use matrices containing symbolic values.
Create Symbolic Matrix Variables
Use symbolic matrix variables.
Use Symbolic Objects to Represent Mathematical Objects
Use symbolic objects to represent mathematical objects.
Find Symbolic Variables in Expressions, Functions, and Matrices
Find variables in symbolic expressions.
Choose syms or sym Function
Choose syms or sym function.
Change Output Format of Symbolic and Variable-Precision Arithmetic
Change output format of symbolic and variable-precision arithmetic.
Change Output Display Format of Symbolic Results in the Live Editor
Modify output of symbolic results.
Add Subscripts, Superscripts, and Accents to Symbolic Variables in the Live Editor
Add suffixes to symbolic variables.
Copy and Paste Symbolic Output in Live Editor
Copy and paste symbolic output.