array of symbolic variables which are function of time

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p = sym('p', [m 1]);
the above code gives me an array of symbolic variables, where m is the size of the matrix. However i want to create an array of symbolic variables which are function of time i.e. p1(t),p2(t),.... .

Accepted Answer

Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 26 Oct 2017
There is no facility to do this. You will need to loop (or equivalent). For example in R2017b or later,
p = arrayfun(@(N) str2sym(sprintf('p%d(t)',N)), 1:5).'
  3 Comments
Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 26 Oct 2017
ptemp = arrayfun(@(N) sym(sprintf('p%d(t)',N)), (1:m).', 'uniform', 0);
p = vertcat(ptemp{:});
You might get m warnings along the line of
Warning: Support of character vectors that are not valid variable names or define a number will be removed in a future release. To create symbolic
expressions, first create symbolic variables and then use operations on them.
Jai Tushar
Jai Tushar on 28 Oct 2017
Edited: Jai Tushar on 28 Oct 2017
it worked!!
what does uniform and 0 do in the code?
Also,
ptemp = arrayfun(@(N) sym(sprintf('p%d(t)',N)), (1:2), 'uniform', 0); p = vertcat(ptemp{:});
A = [1 2; -1 1]; odes = diff(p) == A*p
Gives me the output as
odes =
diff(p1(t), t) == p1(t) + 2*p2(t)
diff(p2(t), t) == p2(t) - p1(t)
Why is odes not the funtion of time in the output. When i define p1(t),... and so on manually and define P = [p1; p2] then odes == diff(P) = A*p gives odes as a function of time i.e. odes(t) in the output. W

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More Answers (2)

Juraj Lieskovský
Juraj Lieskovský on 4 Mar 2021
Edited: Juraj Lieskovský on 4 Mar 2021
Simple solution (using R2020b)
syms t
syms p(t) [m,1]

KSSV
KSSV on 26 Oct 2017
syms p1(t) p2(t) p3(t)
p = [p1 p2 p3]
  1 Comment
Jai Tushar
Jai Tushar on 26 Oct 2017
Edited: Jai Tushar on 26 Oct 2017
you are defining p1(t),... manually here.
I want my script to define them according to the size of the square matrix i enter. For example if i have a (user input) nxn matrix, then the script should define n such symbolic variables which are functions of time.

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