

Symbolic numbers allow exact representations of fractions, intended to help avoid rounding errors and representation errors. The following creates three symbolic variables, a b and c. By default, the symbolic variables created have the same names as the arguments of the 'syms' function. Symbolic variables can also be declared many at a time using the 'syms' function. You can create arrays of symbolic expressions like everything else:

You can declare a single symbolic variable using the 'sym' function as follows. The MATLAB student version comes with a copy of the symbolic math toolbox. The symbolic math toolbox takes some time to initialize, so if nothing happens for a few seconds after you declare your first symbolic variable of the session, it doesn't mean you did anything wrong. Rather, it is useful as a supplement to provide functions which MATLAB, as a numerical engine, has difficulty with. It is important to remember that MAPLE is not a numeric engine, which means that there are certain things it doesn't let you do that MATLAB can do.

The toolbox simply calls the MAPLE kernel with whatever symbolic expressions you have declared, and then returns a (usually symbolic) expression back to MATLAB. The symbolic toolbox is a bit difficult to use but it is of great utility in applications in which symbolic expressions are necessary for reasons of accuracy in calculations. Introduction to the Symbolic Math Toolbox
