How do I make greek letters appear as symbols and use them as variables?

'\lambda' = arctan(y/x)

This is my current code. How do I make lambda appear as a symbol, and then set it as a variable? Thanks.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

You cannot do that.

If you use the Symbolic Toolbox, and you are using LiveScript (or MATLAB Online, or MATLAB Answers), and you use a unbound symbolic variable named after a greek letter, then in output the symbol will be rendered.

syms alpha beta lambda
lambda = atan2(beta,alpha)

lambda = 

But it only works for unbound variables; variables that have been bound to a value get replaced by the value

1 + lambda

ans =