Quotes around the name of the function

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When do we put quotes around the name of the function and when not ? For example, I used fsolve(myfun,x0) and I got no results , but when I used fsolve('myfun',x0) I got the root I was looking for ...

Accepted Answer

Matt Fig
Matt Fig on 15 Dec 2012
Edited: Matt Fig on 15 Dec 2012
Typically, you want to pass a handle to a function, not a string.
fsovle(@myfun,x0) % Notice the @ symbol --> a function handle.
The string argument gets evaluated the same way, probably for backward compatibility. The modern way is to use function handles.
  3 Comments
Matt Fig
Matt Fig on 15 Dec 2012
You would have to show exactly what you did in order for me to know why one code failed.
f = @(x) exp(x) - cos(x) - 1; % f is a function handle.
fsolve(f,0) % Seems to work....
f = @(x) exp(x) - x^2 - 68 ; % Another function handle.
fsolve(f,0) % Also works....
Antonis V.
Antonis V. on 15 Dec 2012
Ok i found out why it failed ! I had created and saved this function so I guess I had to use fsolve(@f,0) in first place ! Thanks a lot ! And one last thing :P I am a new Matlab user , and I haven't yet figured out how initial guesses work !For instance, I want to find out the roots of the equation F(X) = exp(x) - x^2 - 68 . What values should I put to x0 ? I 've tried several values close to 0 and I got the same result but I noticed I can't use very big numbers , whereas I can use very small numbers. If I want to find all the roots at F's domain range should I put more than one values at x0 ?

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