# \`esc\` asymmetry between \`public\` and \`export\`
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/esc-asymmetry-between-public-and-export/127420
**Category:** General Usage
**Created:** [March 27, 2025, 2:23pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/esc-asymmetry-between-public-and-export/127420 "2025-03-27T14:23:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@PatrickHaecker](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/PatrickHaecker)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2025, 2:23pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/esc-asymmetry-between-public-and-export/127420/1 "2025-03-27T14:23:46Z")
I think I understood the semantic difference between `export` and `public`.
However, besides this semantic difference I thought that I can always exchange them syntactically. However, this does not seem to be the case.
In the following, only `@mypublic` fails with `ERROR: syntax: malformed "public" statement`, while `@myexport` does not result in an error (tested both on 1.11.4 and nightly).
```julia
macro mypublic()
Expr(:public, :a)
end
@mypublic
macro mypublic_esc()
Expr(:public, :a) |> esc
end
@mypublic_esc
macro myexport()
Expr(:export, :a)
end
@myexport
macro myexport_esc()
Expr(:export, :a) |> esc
end
@myexport_esc
```
Why is this the case? Where is this difference documented?
---
### Author:  [@GunnarFarneback](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GunnarFarneback)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2025, 2:39pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/esc-asymmetry-between-public-and-export/127420/2 "2025-03-27T14:39:21Z")
Some of the asymmetry between `public` and `export` is explained in the comments to [Make `public` parse similar to `export` · Issue #502 · JuliaLang/JuliaSyntax.jl · GitHub](https://github.com/JuliaLang/JuliaSyntax.jl/issues/502). I suspect there are similar reasons for this discrepancy.
---
### Author:  [@PatrickHaecker](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/PatrickHaecker)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2025, 3:08pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/esc-asymmetry-between-public-and-export/127420/3 "2025-03-27T15:08:46Z")
> [@GunnarFarneback](#):
>
> Some of the asymmetry between `public` and `export` is explained in the comments to [Make `public` parse similar to `export` · Issue #502 · JuliaLang/JuliaSyntax.jl · GitHub](https://github.com/JuliaLang/JuliaSyntax.jl/issues/502). I suspect there are similar reasons for this discrepancy.
Thanks, very enlightening. However, I keep it open for the moment, as the linked discussion focuses on global scope vs local scope, which does not seem to apply here. Although the motivation is probably similar, I would still like to understand the motivation for the difference with `esc`.