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mixedUnits

Split unit into sum of units

Description

example

mixedUnits(quantity,units) splits the physical quantity quantity into a linear combination of the units in units.

  • Units in units must be in descending order of magnitude.

  • Units in quantity and units must be compatible.

  • quantity must not contain symbolic variables.

Examples

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Split 8000 seconds into hours, minutes, and seconds by using mixedUnits. The result is 2 hours, 13 minutes, and 20 seconds.

u = symunit;
t = 8000*u.s;
tunits = [u.hour u.minute u.second];
tSplit = mixedUnits(t,tunits)
tSplit =
[ 2, 13, 20]

Customize the displayed output by using compose.

compose("%d hours + %d minutes + %.1f seconds", double(tSplit))
ans = 
    "2 hours + 13 minutes + 20.0 seconds"

Convert the geographic coordinate 15.352° into degrees (°), arcminutes ('), and arcseconds (''). The result is 15° 21' 36/5''.

gCoord = 15.352*u.degree;
gUnits = [u.degree u.arcmin u.arcsec];
gCoordSplit = mixedUnits(gCoord,gUnits)
gCoordSplit =
[ 15, 21, 36/5]

Convert the result from symbolic to floating point by using double.

gCoordDbl = double(gCoordSplit)
gCoordDbl =
   15.0000   21.0000    7.2000

Reconstruct the original coordinate by summing the split units and rewriting the result to degrees. mixedUnits returns an exact symbolic result instead of a numeric approximation. For details, see Choose Numeric or Symbolic Arithmetic.

gOrig = sum(gCoordSplit.*gUnits);
gOrig = rewrite(gOrig,u.degree)
gOrig =
(1919/125)*[deg]

Input Arguments

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Input, specified as a symbolic expression with units. quantity must not contain symbolic variables. Units in quantity and units must be compatible.

Units to represent input as, specified as a vector of symbolic units. Units must be in descending order of magnitude. Units in quantity and units must be compatible.

Version History

Introduced in R2018a