Difficulty using "symsum" within a function definition

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I'm trying to define a function "ansin" that takes in an array of test values and outputs the function values of the n-th degree Taylor polynomial for sin(x). I am totally unfamiliar with symsum and just tried to do the best I could to copy the notation in the MatLab documentation . Below is the summation that I'm trying to emulate, the code I used and the error I got.
The only difference between the formula and my code is that I've replaced all the n's with k's so that "n" can stand for the degree of taylor polynomial I want. Also I am not summing to infinity but to "n".
testcases = -2*pi + (4*pi).*rand(2000,1);
pred1 = ansin(testcases,1);
pred2 = ansin(testcases,2);
pred3 = ansin(testcases,3);
pred4 = ansin(testcases,4);
function y = ansin(x,n)
y = symsum(((-1)^(k-1))*((x^(2*k-1))/factorial(2*k-1)), k, 1, n);
end
Undefined function or variable 'k'.
Error in Taylor_Polynomial_Practice>ansin (line 10) y = symsum(((-1)^(k-1))*((x^(2*k-1))/factorial(2*k-1)), k, 1, n);
Error in Taylor_Polynomial_Practice (line 2) pred1 = ansin(testcases,1);
  1 Comment
Riacon12
Riacon12 on 27 Apr 2018
I'd also like to add that I know there is taylor series functionality right in Matlab, but I'm using this example to get some experience with the symsum command.

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Answers (1)

Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 27 Apr 2018
This is correct. You do not have a definition for k.
syms k
  2 Comments
Riacon12
Riacon12 on 27 Apr 2018
Then I get the following:
Error using symengine Not a square matrix.
Error in sym/privBinaryOp (line 973) Csym = mupadmex(op,args{1}.s, args{2}.s, varargin{:});
Error in ^ (line 310) B = privBinaryOp(A, p, 'symobj::mpower');
Error in Taylor_Polynomial_Practice>ansin (line 9) y = symsum(((-1)^(k-1))*((x^(2*k-1))/factorial(2*k-1)), k, 1, n);
Error in Taylor_Polynomial_Practice (line 2) pred1 = ansin(testcases,1);
Riacon12
Riacon12 on 27 Apr 2018
Nevermind, I needed to use ".^" instead of "^". Thank you for your help!

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