Assign number to symbol in cell array

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Jongwook
Jongwook on 20 Sep 2014
Hello,
I want to assign a number (ex. 2) to a symbolic variable (x) in a cell array (A) using a cell array index operator {}.
syms x y ... ; A{1}=x; A{2}=y; ...
For example, if I write A{1}=2, then A{1} changes to 2; x does not become 2, definitely. Is there any way?

Answers (1)

Abhiram Bhanuprakash
Abhiram Bhanuprakash on 29 Sep 2014
The behaviour which you have pointed out is expected, because you are setting the value of the cell array element A{1} to 2, but not setting a value to the symbol. Assigning a 'double' value to a 'sym' variable would just convert the 'sym' variable to a 'double'.
You can use the function SUBS to substitute a symbolic variable with a 'double' in MATLAB.
Here is some sample code to do the same:
>> syms x,y;
>> A{1} = x; A{2} = y;
>> subs(A{1}+A{2},A{1},5);
You would get the result to be
y + 5

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