Trying to get a MATLAB function to take an array of inputs - matlab

Question

I'm trying to call a numerical integration function (namely one that uses the trapazoidal method) to compute a definite integral. However, I want to pass more than one value of 'n' to the following function,
function I = traprule(f, a, b, n)
if ~isa(f, 'function_handle')
error('Your first argument was not a function handle')
end
h = (b-a)./ n;
x = a:h:b;
S = 0;
for j = 2:n
S = S + f(x(j));
end
I = (h/2)*(f(a) + 2*S + f(b)); %computes indefinite integral
end
I'm using; f = #(x) 1/x, a = 1 and b = 2. I'm trying to pass n = 10.^(1:10) too, however, I get the following output for I when I do so,
I =
Columns 1 through 3
0.693771403175428 0.069377140317543 0.006937714031754
Columns 4 through 6
0.000693771403175 0.000069377140318 0.000006937714032
Columns 7 through 9
0.000000693771403 0.000000069377140 0.000000006937714
Column 10
0.000000000693771
Any ideas on how to get the function to take n = 10.^(1:10) so I get an output something like,
I = 0.693771403175428, 0.693153430481824, 0.693147243059937 ... and so on for increasing powers of 10?

Answer 1

In the script where you are calling this from, simply iterate over n
k = 3;
f = #(x)1./x;
a = 1; b = 2;
I = zeros(k,1);
for n = 1:k
I(n) = traprule(f, a, b, 10^n);
end
% output: I = 0.693771403175428
% 0.693153430481824
% 0.693147243059937
Then I will contain all of the outputs. Alternatively you can adapt your function to use the same logic to loop over the elements of n if it is passed
as a vector.
Note, you can improve the efficiency of your traprule code by removing the for loop:
% This loop operates on every element of x individually, and is inefficient
S = 0;
for j = 2:n
S = S + f(x(j));
end
% If you ensure you use element-wise equations like f=#(x)1./x instead of f=#(x)1/x
% Then you can use this alternative:
S = sum(f(x(2:n)));