I'm a noob and the assignment is to create a derivative script without using the polyder function. I have this so far? Does anyone have a more efficient method because I want to learn to code efficiently from the start.

f=[2, -5, -12, 30, 10];

column=size(f);
degree=column(2)-1;

exponents=[degree:-1:0];

deriv1=f.*exponents
deriv2=deriv1.*(exponents-1)

Answer 1

[Birdman]

Using Symbolic Toolbox might be more efficient and easier for you.

syms x
fun=2*x^4-5*x^3-12*x^2+30*x+10
der1=diff(fun,x)
der2=diff(fun,x,2)

and you may get coefficients by coeffs command.

fliplr(coeffs(fun))
fliplr(coeffs(der1))
fliplr(coeffs(der2))

[+ +]

Thanks I didn't know about syms, or the functions diff and coeffs. I'll look more into them.