11.9.3 Inline Functions

An inline function is created from a string containing the function body using the inline function. The following code defines the function f(x) = x^2 + 2.

f = inline("x^2 + 2");

After this it is possible to evaluate f at any x by writing f(x).

Built-in Function: inline (str)

Built-in Function: inline (str, arg1, …)

Built-in Function: inline (str, n)

Create an inline function from the character string str. If called with a single argument, the arguments of the generated function are extracted from the function itself. The generated function arguments will then be in alphabetical order. It should be noted that i, and j are ignored as arguments due to the ambiguity between their use as a variable or their use as an inbuilt constant. All arguments followed by a parenthesis are considered to be functions.

If the second and subsequent arguments are character strings, they are the names of the arguments of the function.

If the second argument is an integer n, the arguments are "x", "P1", …, "PN".

See also: argnames, formula, vectorize.

Built-in Function: argnames (fun)

Return a cell array of character strings containing the names of the arguments of the inline function fun.

See also: inline, formula, vectorize.

Built-in Function: formula (fun)

Return a character string representing the inline function fun. Note that char (fun) is equivalent to formula (fun).

See also: argnames, inline, vectorize.

Built-in Function: vectorize (fun)

Create a vectorized version of the inline function fun by replacing all occurrences of *, /, etc., with .*, ./, etc.

Function File: symvar (s)

Identifies the argument names in the function defined by a string. Common constant names such as pi, NaN, Inf, eps, i or j are ignored. The arguments that are found are returned in a cell array of strings. If no variables are found then the returned cell array is empty.