Indexing array of symbolic variables dependent on time

I need to create variable number of symbolic variables and access each of them individually. It is necessary that they are time varying for purposes of calling diff.

So far I can see that a variable number can be created by

N = 5 % number of variables for example
syms x(t) [1,N]

But if one then tries to access the first element, x1(t), this results in

>> x(1)
 
ans =
 
[ x1(1), x2(1)]

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

you cannot do that with the symbolic toolbox. The () indexing is incompatible between symfun and arrays.

If you need an array of symfun then it must be cell array.

[Morten Nissov]

Is it possible to generate a cell array containing a variable number of symbolic variables? Equivalent to syms x [1,N] but with a cell array instead of array.

[Walter Roberson]

x = str2sym(compose("x" + (1:4) + "(t)"))

This will be an array of symbols that live at the MuPAD level, and can be operated like

dsolve(diff(x(1),t) == t^2)

but they will not act like symbolic functions. For example if you had done

syms y(t)

then you could use y(0) to represent y evaluated at 0, but you cannot use x(1)(0) and would instead need to use subs(x(1),t,0)