# Checking if a name is an alias

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/checking-if-a-name-is-an-alias/110024>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [February 10, 2024, 11:14am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/checking-if-a-name-is-an-alias/110024 "2024-02-10T11:14:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![putianyi888](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/putianyi888/32/32279_2.png) [@putianyi888](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/putianyi888)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 11:14am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/checking-if-a-name-is-an-alias/110024/1 "2024-02-10T11:14:06Z")

</div>

I’m looking for a more external/generic way to achieve

```julia
sourcetypename(type::UnionAll) = sourcetypename(type.body)
sourcetypename(type::DataType) = type.name.name
isnotalias(type) = string(type) == string(sourcetypename(type))

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![putianyi888](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/putianyi888/32/32279_2.png) [@putianyi888](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/putianyi888)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 11:31am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/checking-if-a-name-is-an-alias/110024/2 "2024-02-10T11:31:29Z")

</div>

```julia
isnotalias(type) = string(type) == string(Base.typename(type).name)

```
