Are there Any Restrictions on Latex Markup in Figure Titles?

This works fine:

syms t
s1(t) = exp(-abs(t));
figure;
title("$"+latex(s1(t))+"$",'Interpreter','latex')

But this does not

s2(t) = piecewise(t<-1,0, t>2,0, exp(-abs(t)));
figure;
title("$"+latex(s2(t))+"$",'Interpreter','latex')

Warning: Error updating Text.

String scalar or character vector must have valid interpreter syntax:
$\left\{\begin{array}{cl} 0 & \text{\ if\ \ }t<-1\vee 2<t\\ {\mathrm{e}}^{-\left|t\right|} & \mathrm{ otherwise} \end{array}\right.$

Is there any way to get s2(t) on the figure in any way at all (title, text, anything)?

[Star Strider]

The Symbolic Math Toolbox has its own way of depicting piecewise functions:

syms t
s2(t) = piecewise(t<-1,0, t>2,0, exp(-abs(t)))

s2(t) = 

I doubt that could be incorporated into a text object of any sort.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

The \text is the immediate problem. If you use \textrm instead then you get something

[Paul]

I'd say that using \textrm results in a lot more than something!

syms t
s2(t) = piecewise(t<-1,0, t>2,0, exp(-abs(t)));
figure
title(["$" + replace(latex(s2(t)),"text","textrm") + "$"],'interpreter','latex')

I don't know anything about latex (not even how to pronounce it ;) )

What's the difference between \text and \textrm ? Any idea why the markup \text is valid interpreter syntax if I copy the output of latex(s2(t)) into the LiveScript latex equation box but doesn't work with title() or text(). My mental model is that the latex engine (is that the correct term?) would be the same for Live Script or annotating figures, and so a valid latex expression in one use would be valid in the other.

[Walter Roberson]

latex() is a function from the Symbolic Toolbox, which was written by a different company (and then the product was purchased by Mathworks.)

The Livescript latex interpreter is the same one available here on MATLAB Answers if you use $ expressions in text, like $ \ddot{x} $ (but without the space around the dollar signs). But that is not the same one supported in graphics objects (which is more restrictive.)

Livescript has its own rendering procedures . If you look quite carefully, some of the details of Livescript plots are different than either traditional figures or uifigures (I have seen it happen, but I do not recall anything particular at the moment.)

[Paul]

Well ... so much for my mental model.

Strictly speaking, is the \text markup produced by the latex() command fundamentally incorrect? Or is it correct per the latex "standard" (whatever that may be) but for whatever reason just not supported in rendering equations in graphics objects?

IOTW, is there a bug in the latex() command?

[Walter Roberson]

\text is part of the amsmath package. There is no documentation as to which packages the various components support, but amsmath is decidedly not supported for graphics objects.