How can I create and add a variable to a vector?

I have an assignment which asks me to take a set of vectors of the form :

3 0 h 0 0

and compute a set of orthonormal vectors such that the span of both sets is the same.

What I need to know is. How can I have the h in the vector as a variable, so that when I apply the algorithm to the vectors it treats the h as a number, but sort of, shows the expression for the result.

Simply entering "a = [1;0;h;0;0]" returns "??? Undefined function or variable 'h'."

I am very new to Matlab so the answer might be very simple, or Matlab just doesn't do it. I don't know.

Answer 1

[Andrew Newell]

If you have the Symbolic Toolbox, you can do this:

syms h
a = [3 0 h 0 0]

If not, you could create a function, for example this inline function:

createVector = @(x) [3 0 x 0 0]

so

a = createVector(1)

give

a =

     3     0     1     0     0

In that case you would get a numeric answer for your set of orthonormal vectors.