# Convert symbolic expression to floating point?

**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/convert-symbolic-expression-to-floating-point/107788
**Category:** Specific Domains
**Tags:** symbolics
**Created:** [December 18, 2023, 8:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/convert-symbolic-expression-to-floating-point/107788 "2023-12-18T20:24:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Krastanov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/krastanov/32/6817_2.png) [@Krastanov](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Krastanov)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2023, 8:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/convert-symbolic-expression-to-floating-point/107788/1 "2023-12-18T20:24:08Z")

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This is about Symbolics.jl

I have a variableless symbolic expression `wrap(Term(sqrt, [2]))` as a way to represent an irrational constant symbolically. But at some point I want to actually compute the floating point value for that symbolic expression. How do I do that? `unwrap` or `round` or `Float64` do not seem to do it.

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### Author: ![kpobrien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c0e974/32.png) [@kpobrien](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kpobrien)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2023, 10:39pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/convert-symbolic-expression-to-floating-point/107788/2 "2023-12-18T22:39:03Z")

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I don’t know if it’s the best solution, but I’ve used `substitute` with an empty dictionary for similar cases:

```julia

julia> using Symbolics

julia> using BenchmarkTools

julia> @btime substitute(x,Dict()) setup=(x=Symbolics.wrap(Symbolics.Term(sqrt, [2])))
  3.345 μs (26 allocations: 1.53 KiB)
1.4142135623730951

julia> @btime substitute(Symbolics.unwrap(x),Dict()) setup=(x=Symbolics.wrap(Symbolics.Term(sqrt, [2])))
  3.010 μs (18 allocations: 992 bytes)
1.4142135623730951

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jcbritobr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jcbritobr/32/219275_2.png) [@jcbritobr](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jcbritobr)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2026, 12:05pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/convert-symbolic-expression-to-floating-point/107788/3 "2026-02-05T12:05:55Z")

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I know we have already a solution, but give a look here:

```julia
Symbolics.symbolic_to_float.(x)

```