# ForwardDiff for functions of several (vector) variables?
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forwarddiff-for-functions-of-several-vector-variables/22918
**Category:** Modelling & Simulations
**Tags:** question
**Created:** [April 8, 2019, 12:58pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forwarddiff-for-functions-of-several-vector-variables/22918 "2019-04-08T12:58:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@zdenek\_hurak](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/zdenek_hurak)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2019, 12:58pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forwarddiff-for-functions-of-several-vector-variables/22918/1 "2019-04-08T12:58:40Z")
Is it possible to use ForwardDiff for functions of several variables? In particular, consider a scalar function L( **x** , **u** ) of two vector variables **x** and **u**. I want to compute the gradient of L() with respect to **x**.
From the documentation it appears that currently ForwardDiff can only compute derivatives and gradients for functions of a single (vector) variable. Any way?
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### Author:  [@kristoffer.carlsson](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kristoffer.carlsson)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2019, 1:11pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forwarddiff-for-functions-of-several-vector-variables/22918/2 "2019-04-08T13:11:49Z")
Pass `x -> L(x, u)` to ForwardDiff.
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### Author:  [@zdenek\_hurak](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/zdenek_hurak)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2019, 1:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forwarddiff-for-functions-of-several-vector-variables/22918/3 "2019-04-10T13:42:17Z")
Many thanks. Besides having my question answered, I think that I am now significantly closer to understanding anonymous functions in Julia.