How to find a symbolic derivative?

Assume you are writing a complex function - in my case, to find the equations of motion of a coupled drives system (CE108).

Is there a way to differentiate a symbolic variable (say, x) so that you get its symbolic derivative (in our case, dx)?

Example:

 syms x, m
 T = 0.5*m*x^2
 y = SymbolicDerivative(T,x);  %is there something like this
 y = m*dx                      % that gives this?

Any custom made functions or any prebuilt ones you know?

Answer 1

[Jose Marques]

Use diff function:

syms f(x)
f(x) = sin(x^2);
df = diff(f,x)

Result:

df(x) = 2*x*cos(x^2)

https://www.mathworks.com/help/symbolic/diff.html