Formatting Symbolic Output Display

In Matlab R2016a the output format that I get for a symbolic calculation is similar to PRETTYPRINT format. I would like to disable that and have a one-dimensional plain text as the output (i.e. "*" for multiplication "/" for division). I found the following sources when we use MuPAD. However, I am not using MuPAD and I would like to do the same thing using the Editor in Matlab. Note that my output does not have anything numeric so vpa commands do not work!

http://www.mathworks.com/help/symbolic/mupad_ref/prettyprint.html

http://www.mathworks.com/help/symbolic/mupad_ug/use-different-output-modes.html#ni-format-outputs-modes-typeset

[Star Strider]

‘In Matlab R2016a the output format for a symbolic calculation is similar to PRETTYPRINT format.’

It isn’t for me in R2016a. I’m not aware that pretty can be set as a default format. Please post an example.

[Giray]

Here is a simple example:

>> syms x y z

>> solve((x^2*z + y), x)

ans =

                                 [       1/2 ]
                                 [ (-z y)    ]
                                 [ --------- ]
                                 [     z     ]
                                 [           ]
                                 [        1/2]
                                 [  (-z y)   ]
                                 [- ---------]
                                 [      z    ]

In the earlier versions, for example, I would get: ((-z*y)^1/2)/z

[Star Strider]

This might be a problem to bring to the attention of MathWorks Technical Support.

When I do it, I get:

syms x y z
solve((x^2*z + y), x)

ans =

    (-y)^(1/2)/z^(1/2)
   -(-y)^(1/2)/z^(1/2)

[Walter Roberson]

Giray, which operating system are you using? (Just in case it is OS-specific) ?

Also, is it possible that you have Maple installed?

[Giray]

Walter, I am using 64-bit OS & Windows 10. I have Maple 2016 installed as well. Is it possible that Maple is causing this? Because I believe the symbolic calculation routine uses Maple as a toolbox.

[Walter Roberson]

Mathwork's Symbolic Toolbox uses MuPAD as its calculation engine, and has since R2008b if I recall correctly. However, if you happen to also own a copy of Maple then when you install Maple it will give you an option to install a symbolic toolbox that uses Maple as its engine. The formatting in such a case could be considerably different (and the available commands are not the same.)

Check by using

which solve

If you are using the MATLAB Symbolic toolbox then on OS-X the result would be

/Applications/MATLAB_R2016a.app/toolbox/symbolic/symbolic/solve.m