I was thinking about something that I never understood when I took my QM course. If I have an infinite square well, say $V=0$ for $ -a<x<a$ and $V= \infty$ otherwise. In the region of interest, the Schrödinger Equation reads: $$-\frac{\hbar}{2m}\frac{\partial^2\psi}{\partial x^2}=E\psi $$ so the differential equation to solve is: $$\frac{\partial^2\psi}{\partial x^2}=-k^2\psi$$ with $k^2=\frac{2mE}{\hbar^2}$, as usual. Here, I remember that I was taught that we use the solutions $$\psi=A\sin(kx)+B\cos(kx),$$ which obviously satisfies the DE. However, I never quite understood why we don't pick $$\psi=Ae^{ikx}+Be^{-ikx},$$ since this function also would satisfy the DE. During my QM course I always struggled choosing when to use an exponential solution versus a sinusoidal one. Could someone shed some light on this matter? There must be a clear reason to choose one over the other when facing a new problem.