# Creating Arrays - different behavior of \*(a,b) and +(a,b) elements

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/creating-arrays-different-behavior-of-a-b-and-a-b-elements/4213>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** question\
**Created:** [June 11, 2017, 8:22pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/creating-arrays-different-behavior-of-a-b-and-a-b-elements/4213 "2017-06-11T20:22:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![strickek](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/strickek/32/14885_2.png) [@strickek](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/strickek)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 8:22pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/creating-arrays-different-behavior-of-a-b-and-a-b-elements/4213/1 "2017-06-11T20:22:27Z")

</div>

```julia
Any[1 +(1,3)]

```

gives

```julia
1x2 Array{Any,2}:
 1 4

```

but

```julia
Any[1 *(1,3)]

```

have an

```julia
MethodError: `*` has no method matching *(::Int64, ::Tuple{Int64,Int64})
Closest candidates are:
  *(::Any, ::Any, ::Any, ::Any...)
  *(::Real, ::Complex{Bool})
  *(::Real, ::Complex{T<:Real})

```

why?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ZacLN](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/zacln/32/2748_2.png) [@ZacLN](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ZacLN)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 9:53am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/creating-arrays-different-behavior-of-a-b-and-a-b-elements/4213/2 "2017-06-12T09:53:40Z")

</div>

Parsing rules for separating elements of an array when hitting an operator depend on whether the operator is unary and whether it is followed by some white space. A unary operator followed by no white space is determined to declare a new element of the array while when it hits the binary operator it constructs a compound expression following normal rules.