## Matlab character matrices

Hi everyone,

I am wondering if I can input a matrix into Matlab that contains characters. I then would like to manipulate the matrix using row changing operations. Matlab, however, will not allow me to create a matrix with letters. Is there an equivalent to a matrix for character values that can have operations performed on them?

Thanks.

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 Maybe I'm using cells incorrectly, but to test I am multiplying a 4x4 matrix / array with the 4x4 identity. It should return the original matrix / array. However, I get an error message that won't allow me to perform the operation. "??? Undefined function or method 'mtimes' for input arguments of type 'cell'. This is irritating. I wanted to use this as a check for my homework but I can't. Is there anyway around this error? Thanks!

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## Matlab character matrices

Are you just trying to do symbolic math with matrices? You can use sym or the shortcut syms to create symbolic variables and then create a matrix using them. E.g. for something like
$$\begin{vmatrix} a & b \\ c & d \end{vmatrix} = ad - bc$$
you could do:
Code:
syms a b c d real;
det([a b; c d]);
I didn't realize you needed to do matrix arithmetic, so cells won't work.