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int
Definite and indefinite integrals

Syntax

F = int(expr)
F = int(expr,var)

F = int(expr,a,b)
F = int(expr,var,a,b)

F = int( ___ ,Name,Value)

Description
F = int(expr) computes the indefinite integral of expr. int uses the default integration variable example
determined by symvar(expr,1). If expr is a constant, then the default integration variable is x.

example
F = int(expr,var) computes the indefinite integral of expr with respect to the symbolic scalar variable
var.

F = int(expr,a,b) computes the definite integral of expr from a to b. int uses the default integration example
variable determined by symvar(expr,1). If expr is a constant, then the default integration variable is x.

int(expr,[a b]) is equivalent to int(expr,a,b).

example
F = int(expr,var,a,b) computes the definite integral of expr with respect to the symbolic scalar
variable var from a to b.

int(expr,var,[a b]) is equivalent to int(expr,var,a,b).

F = int( ___ ,Name,Value) specifies additional options using one or more Name,Value pair arguments. example
For example, 'IgnoreAnalyticConstraints',true specifies that int applies additional simplifications
to the integrand.

 Note
The int function computes integral symbolically, and it is not related to integer data types in
MATLAB®. For more information about integers, see Integers.

Examples collapse all

 Indefinite Integral of Univariate Expression

Define a univariate expression.

Try This Example

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 Copy Command

syms x  Get
expr = -2*x/(1+x^2)^2;

Find the indefinite integral of the univariate expression.

F = int(expr)  Get

F =
1
2
x + 1

 Indefinite Integrals of Multivariate Function

Define a multivariate function with variables x and z.

Try This Example

 Copy Command

syms x z  Get
f(x,z) = x/(1+z^2);

Find the indefinite integrals of the multivariate expression with respect to the variables x and z.

Fx = int(f,x)  Get

Fx(x, z) =
2
x
2
2 (z + 1)

Fz = int(f,z)  Get

Fz(x, z) = x atan(z)

If you do not specify the integration variable, then int uses the first variable returned by symvar as the integration
variable.

var = symvar(f,1)  Get

var = x

F = int(f)  Get

F(x, z) =
2
x
2
2 (z + 1)

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 Definite Integrals of Symbolic Expressions

Integrate a symbolic expression from 0 to 1.

Try This Example

 Copy Command

syms x  Get
expr = x*log(1+x);
F = int(expr,[0 1])

F =
1

Integrate another expression from sin(t) to 1.

syms t  Get
F = int(2*x,[sin(t) 1])

F =
2
cos(t )

When int cannot compute the value of a definite integral, numerically approximate the integral by using vpa.

syms x  Get
f = cos(x)/sqrt(1 + x^2);
Fint = int(f,x,[0 10])

Fint =
10
cos( x)
dx
∫ 2
0 √x + 1

Fvpa = vpa(Fint)  Get

Fvpa = 0.37570628299079723478493405557162

To approximate integrals directly, use vpaintegral instead of vpa. The vpaintegral function is faster and
provides control over integration tolerances.

Fvpaint = vpaintegral(f,x,[0 10])  Get

Fvpaint = 0.375706

 Integrals of Matrix Elements

Define a symbolic matrix containing four expressions as its elements.

Try This Example

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 Copy Command

syms a x t z  Get
M = [exp(t) exp(a*t); sin(t) cos(t)]

M =
t a t
e e

(sin(t ) cos(t ))

Find indefinite integrals of the matrix element-wise.

F = int(M,t)  Get

F =
a t
⎛ e ⎞
t
⎜ e ⎟
a
⎜ ⎟
⎝ −cos(t ) sin(t )⎠

 Apply IgnoreAnalyticConstraints

Define a symbolic function and compute its indefinite integral.

Try This Example

 Copy Command

syms f(x)  Get

f(x) = acos(cos(x));
F = int(f,x)

F(x) =
2
x
x acos(cos( x)) −
2 sign(sin( x))

By default, int uses strict mathematical rules. These rules do not let int rewrite acos(cos(x)) as x.

If you want a simple practical solution, set 'IgnoreAnalyticConstraints' to true.

F = int(f,x,'IgnoreAnalyticConstraints',true)  Get

F(x) =
2
x

 Ignore Special Cases

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Define a symbolic expression x

t
and compute its indefinite integral with respect to Try This Example
the variable x .

 Copy Command

syms x t  Get
F = int(x^t,x)

F =
⎧ log( x) if t = −1
⎪
⎨ t +1
x
⎪ if t ≠ −1
⎩ t + 1

By default, int returns the general results for all values of the other symbolic parameter t. In this example, int
returns two integral results for the case t = −1 and t ≠ −1 .

To ignore special cases of parameter values, set 'IgnoreSpecialCases' to true. With this option, int ignores the
special case t = −1 and returns the solution for t ≠ −1 .

F = int(x^t,x,'IgnoreSpecialCases',true)  Get

F =
t +1
x

t + 1

 Find Cauchy Principal Value

Define a symbolic function f ( x) = 1/( x − 1) that has a pole at x = 1 .

Try This Example

 Copy Command

syms x  Get
f(x) = 1/(x-1)

f(x) =
1

x − 1

Compute the definite integral of this function from x = 0 to x = 2 . Since the integration interval includes the pole,
the result is not defined.

F = int(f,[0 2])  Get

F = NaN

However, the Cauchy principal value of the integral exists. To compute the Cauchy principal value of the integral, set
'PrincipalValue' to true.

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F = int(f,[0 2],'PrincipalValue',true)  Get

F = 0

 Unevaluated Integral and Integration by Parts

Find the integral of ∫ x e

x
dx .
Try This Example
Define the integral without evaluating it by setting the 'Hold' option to true.

 Copy Command

syms x g(y)  Get

F = int(x*exp(x),'Hold',true)

F =
x
x e dx
∫

You can apply integration by parts to F by using the integrateByParts function. Use exp(x) as the differential to
be integrated.

G = integrateByParts(F,exp(x))  Get

G =
x x
x e − e dx
∫

To evaluate the integral in G, use the release function to ignore the 'Hold' option.

Gcalc = release(G)  Get

Gcalc =
x x
x e − e

Compare the result to the integration result returned by int without setting the 'Hold' option.

Fcalc = int(x*exp(x))  Get

Fcalc =
x
e ( x − 1)

 Approximate Indefinite Integrals

If int cannot compute a closed form of an integral, then it returns an unresolved

integral. Try This Example

 Copy Command

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syms f(x)  Get

f(x) = sin(sinh(x));
F = int(f,x)

F(x) =

sin(sinh( x)) dx
∫

You can approximate the integrand function f ( x) as polynomials by using the Taylor expansion. Apply taylor to
expand the integrand function f ( x) as polynomials around x = 0 . Compute the integral of the approximated
polynomials.

fTaylor = taylor(f,x,'ExpansionPoint',0,'Order',10)  Get

fTaylor(x) =
9 7 5
x x x
− − + x
5670 90 15

Fapprox = int(fTaylor,x)  Get

Fapprox(x) =
10 8 6 2
x x x x
− − +
56700 720 90 2

Input Arguments collapse all

expr — Integrand
 symbolic expression | symbolic function | symbolic vector | symbolic matrix | symbolic number

Integrand, specified as a symbolic expression, function, vector, matrix, or number.

var — Integration variable

 symbolic variable

Integration variable, specified as a symbolic variable. If you do not specify this variable, int uses the default
variable determined by symvar(expr,1). If expr is a constant, then the default variable is x.

a — Lower bound
 number | symbolic number | symbolic variable | symbolic expression | symbolic function

Lower bound, specified as a number, symbolic number, variable, expression, or function (including expressions and
functions with infinities).

b — Upper bound

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 number | symbolic number | symbolic variable | symbolic expression | symbolic function

Upper bound, specified as a number, symbolic number, variable, expression, or function (including expressions and
functions with infinities).

Name-Value Arguments
Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and
Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs
does not matter.

Before R2021a, use commas to separate each name and value, and enclose Name in quotes.

Example: 'IgnoreAnalyticConstraints',true specifies that int applies purely algebraic simplifications to the
integrand.

IgnoreAnalyticConstraints — Indicator for applying purely algebraic simplifications to integrand

 false (default) | true

Indicator for applying purely algebraic simplifications to the integrand, specified as true or false. If the value is
true, apply purely algebraic simplifications to the integrand. This option can provide simpler results for
expressions, for which the direct use of the integrator returns complicated results. In some cases, it also enables
int to compute integrals that cannot be computed otherwise.

Using this option can lead to results not generally valid. This option applies mathematical identities that are
convenient, but the results do not always hold for all values of variables. For details, see Algorithms.

IgnoreSpecialCases — Indicator for ignoring special cases

 false (default) | true

Indicator for ignoring special cases, specified as true or false. This ignores cases that require one or more
parameters to be elements of a comparatively small set, such as a fixed finite set or a set of integers.

PrincipalValue — Indicator for returning principal value

 false (default) | true

Indicator for returning the principal value, specified as true or false. If the value is true, int computes the
Cauchy principal value of the integral. In live scripts, the Cauchy principal value of the unevaluated integral appears
as the symbol.

Hold — Indicator for unevaluated integration

 false (default) | true

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Indicator for unevaluated integration, specified as true or false. If the value is true, int returns integrals without
evaluating them.

Tips
In contrast to differentiation, symbolic integration is a more complicated task. If int cannot compute an integral of an
expression, check for these reasons:

The antiderivative does not exist in a closed form.

The antiderivative exists, but int cannot find it.

If int cannot compute a closed form of an integral, it returns an unresolved integral.

For some integrals that have closed form solutions, where these solutions are complicated and int returns
unresolved integrals, you can use simplify to obtain the closed form solutions. For example, the following code finds
the closed form solution of the integral of f(x):

syms x
f(x) = x*log(x/2+sqrt(x^2+1));
F = int(f,x)
simplify(F,Steps=10)

Otherwise, you can try approximating unresolved integrals by using one of these methods:

For indefinite integrals, use series expansions. Use this method to approximate an integral around a particular
value of the variable.

For definite integrals, use numeric approximations.

For indefinite integrals, int does not return a constant of integration in the result. The results of integrating
mathematically equivalent expressions may be different. For example, syms x; int((x+1)^2) returns (x+1)^3/3,
while syms x; int(x^2+2*x+1) returns (x*(x^2+3*x+3))/3, which differs from the first result by 1/3.

For indefinite integrals, int implicitly assumes that the integration variable var is real. For definite integrals, int
restricts the integration variable var to the specified integration interval. If one or both integration bounds a and b are
not numeric, int assumes that a <= b unless you explicitly specify otherwise.

Algorithms
When you use IgnoreAnalyticConstraints, int applies some of these rules:

log(a) + log(b) = log(a·b) for all values of a and b. In particular, the following equality is valid for all values of a, b, and c:
c c c
(a·b) = a ·b .

b
log(a ) = b·log(a) for all values of a and b. In particular, the following equality is valid for all values of a, b, and c:
b c b·c
(a ) = a .

If f and g are standard mathematical functions and f(g(x)) = x for all small positive numbers, then f(g(x)) = x is
assumed to be valid for all complex values x. In particular:

x
log(e ) = x

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, ,
asin(sin(x)) = x acos(cos(x)) = x atan(tan(x)) = x

, ,
asinh(sinh(x)) = x acosh(cosh(x)) = x atanh(tanh(x)) = x

x
Wk(x·e ) = x for all branch indices k of the Lambert W function.

Version History
expand all
Introduced before R2006a

 R2019b: Return unevaluated integral

See Also
diff | dsolve | functionalDerivative | symvar | vpaintegral | integrateByParts | changeIntegrationVariable |
release | rewrite

Topics
Integration

External Websites
Calculus Integrals (MathWorks Teaching Resources)
Beam Bending and Deflection (MathWorks Teaching Resources)

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