# Confusing error message

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/confusing-error-message/18997>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** question\
**Created:** [December 26, 2018, 9:54am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/confusing-error-message/18997 "2018-12-26T09:54:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![peters](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/peters/32/5924_2.png) [@peters](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/peters)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2018, 9:54am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/confusing-error-message/18997/1 "2018-12-26T09:54:09Z")

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Am I only one who has been confused with the following error message?

julia\> pi = 3  
ERROR: cannot assign variable MathConstants.pi from module Main

The error message sounds like, I cannot assign the variable pi (to something else), rather than I cannot assign the value 3 to the variable pi. How about this? Don’t it sound more clear to you?

ERROR: cannot assign a value to variable MathConstants.pi from module Main

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**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2018, 11:56am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/confusing-error-message/18997/2 "2018-12-26T11:56:11Z")

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Yes, I think your suggestion is more clear.

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**Author:** ![waldyrious](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/waldyrious/32/80_2.png) [@waldyrious](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/waldyrious)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2019, 1:45pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/confusing-error-message/18997/3 "2019-01-01T13:45:44Z")

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I’ve submitted this proposed change as [PR #30548](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/30548).

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**Author:** ![peters](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/peters/32/5924_2.png) [@peters](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/peters)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2019, 8:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/confusing-error-message/18997/4 "2019-01-01T20:43:20Z")

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Thanks @waldyrious