Symbolic Matrix has extra blank row

When I do this:

>> syms b
>> C = [1 b; b 2]

C =

                                     [1    b]
                                     [      ]
                                     [b    2]

The online example doesn't show this but I always get a blank row. What am I doing wrong? With all numbers, I get an ordinary matrix.

Answer 1

[madhan ravi]

OR TRY:

C = str2sym('[1 b; b 2]')

Edited after Sir walter‘s comment.

[madhan ravi]

I tried your code and it works fine for me.

[madhan ravi]

if something is not clear let me know

[madhan ravi]

Install symbolic toolbox.

[madhan ravi]

Type ver in your command window and paste what shows here.

[Walter Roberson]

The above would not work in R2018a or later.

[madhan ravi]

Oh that’s useful information @sir Walter thank you.

[Walter Roberson]

MATLAB warned for a number of releases about using sym() of anything that was not numeric or just the name of a variable. In R2017b, they finally provided str2sym() to convert expressions to symbolic. In R2018a, they disabled using sym() on expressions.

>> C = str2sym('[1 b; b 2]')
C =
[ 1, b]
[ b, 2]

[madhan ravi]

That’s really useful information @sir Walter.

[madhan ravi]

did it work @Carol Hurwitz?

[madhan ravi]

If you find our (me and sir Walter‘s) answer useful please do accept my answer.

Answer 2

[Carol Hurwitz]

I still get the same output, using your code. Is there a package I need to install?

[Carol Hurwitz]

I installed MATLAB at work today, with symbolic package, and it works perfectly. I reinstalled it at home and I get the same error as before.

C = [b 1 3 6; 2 4*b b 7; 0 3 5 1]
C =

                               [b     1     3    6]
                               [                  ]
                               [2    4 b    b    7]
                               [                  ]
                               [0     3     5    1]

I am using different versions of Windows. At home I'm using 8.1, at work Win 10, both on 64 bit machines. It worked when I pulled it up on my iphone this afternoon.

[Walter Roberson]

Is it possible that you have Maple installed on the system that has the problem?