# Function Definition only if type is defined
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/function-definition-only-if-type-is-defined/51234
**Category:** New to Julia
**Created:** [December 4, 2020, 2:50am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/function-definition-only-if-type-is-defined/51234 "2020-12-04T02:50:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Paul\_McVay](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Paul_McVay)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2020, 2:50am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/function-definition-only-if-type-is-defined/51234/1 "2020-12-04T02:50:15Z")
I have a file of utilities functions I use a lot. I just include the file whenever I need those functions. In particular, I have functions defined for several different types. One of the types is defined in a separate package and not base julia. But I only sometimes want to load the package. I would like to keep the function definition in the same place since I have several versions of this function depending on the type. But it throws an error if the package is not loaded because the type isn’t defined. How do I only defined the function if the type is defined? How do people typically organize functions in cases like this?
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### Author:  [@malacroi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/malacroi)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2020, 3:40am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/function-definition-only-if-type-is-defined/51234/2 "2020-12-04T03:40:57Z")
You can you use `@isdefined Type` to check if the type is available in the current scope.
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### Author:  [@rdeits](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rdeits)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2020, 3:43am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/function-definition-only-if-type-is-defined/51234/3 "2020-12-04T03:43:08Z")
Your might also find [https://github.com/JuliaPackaging/Requires.jl](https://github.com/JuliaPackaging/Requires.jl) useful in order to only define the relevant functions if the package is loaded.