Matlab – Symbolic & Function Handles

Consider you want to define a function in Matlab, plot it, and differentiate it. This can be done in two ways. Let’s demonstrate the two methods on the function

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whose derivative is

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The first is using function handles (ie; numerically) that take & return values as input & output. Function handles require the inputs to be initialized. Here’s an example:

x = linspace(0.5, 5.0)'; % range of x as column vector
f = x - 3 * log(x); % returns numerical values
df = diff(f) ./ diff(x); % also numerical values of the derivative

The other is symbolically (ie; like you do in your math class) as such

syms x % define symbolic variables
f = x - 3 * log(x); % symbolic function
df = diff(f, x); % gives the symbolic derivative

which returns

f = x - 3*log(x)
df = 1 - 3/x

But this way you cannot give the funtion numerical inputs and hence can’t plot it. To do so you’ll have to convert the function to a function handle which is easy using matlabFunction():

f_handle = matlabFunction(f); % convert symbolic fn to a handle
f_handle(2); % value of f @ x = 2
x = linspace(0.5, 5.0)'; % define range for x as column vector
plot(x, f_handle(x) ) % plot f on the range x

which return

f_handle = @(x)x-log(x).*3.0
df_handle = @(x)-3.0./x+1.0

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