  We give an explicit formula for the solution to the initial value problem of
the full symmetric Toda hierarchy. The formula is obtained by the
orthogonalization procedure of Szeg\"{o}, and is also interpreted as a
consequence of the QR factorization method of Symes \cite{symes}. The sorting
property of the dynamics is also proved for the case of a generic symmetric
matrix in the sense described in the text, and generalizations of tridiagonal
formulae are given for the case of matrices with $2M+1$ nonzero diagonals.
