symbolic differentiation with multiple variables/parameters

I use the follow code to create a sigmoid function of x with a parameter a, and its derivative with respect to x:

>>    syms a x

>>    g = 1/(1+exp(-a*x)) 

>>    dg = diff(g,x)

I then plot them with a=1:

>>    g=matlabFunction(g);

>>    dg=matlabFunction(dg);

>>    x=-10:0.01:10;

>>    plot(x,g(x,1),x,dg(x,1))

>>    subplot(1,2,1)

>>    plot(x,g(1,x),x,g(x,1))

>>    subplot(1,2,2)

>>    plot(x,dg(1,x),x,dg(x,1))

While the first plot gives two identical curves, the second one gives two different ones: dg(1,x) is right but dg(x,1) is wrong.

From these results it seems the function dg takes the first argument as a and second x, instead of the other way around. But why is it this the case? What is the general rule in terms of the order of the parameters/variables in such a function?

Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

[Iman Ansari]

See:

doc matlabFunction

Help: When converting symbolic expressions, the order is alphabetical.When converting symbolic functions, the input arguments appear infront of other variables. Other variables are sorted alphabetically.

You can change it:

syms a x
g = 1/(1+exp(-a*x))
dg = diff(g,x)
g=matlabFunction(g,'vars',[x a])
dg=matlabFunction(dg,'vars',[x a])
x=-10:0.01:10;
figure;
plot(x,g(x,1),x,dg(x,1))
figure;
subplot(1,2,1)
plot(x,g(1,x),x,g(x,1))
subplot(1,2,2)
plot(x,dg(1,x),x,dg(x,1))