# How to split a vector of complex into a real and an imag vector
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-split-a-vector-of-complex-into-a-real-and-an-imag-vector/101053
**Category:** General Usage
**Tags:** question, complex-numbers
**Created:** [July 1, 2023, 4:05pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-split-a-vector-of-complex-into-a-real-and-an-imag-vector/101053 "2023-07-01T16:05:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ufechner7](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ufechner7)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2023, 4:05pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-split-a-vector-of-complex-into-a-real-and-an-imag-vector/101053/1 "2023-07-01T16:05:44Z")
I have the following example:
```julia
julia> a=1+2im
1 + 2im
julia> A=a*ones(3)
3-element Vector{ComplexF64}:
1.0 + 2.0im
1.0 + 2.0im
1.0 + 2.0im
```
How can I can convert A into two vectors, a vector of the real values and a vector of the imaginary values?
---
### Author:  [@Oscar\_Smith](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Oscar_Smith)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2023, 4:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-split-a-vector-of-complex-into-a-real-and-an-imag-vector/101053/2 "2023-07-01T16:12:47Z")
`real(A)` and `imag(A)`
---
### Author:  [@ufechner7](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ufechner7)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2023, 4:14pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-split-a-vector-of-complex-into-a-real-and-an-imag-vector/101053/3 "2023-07-01T16:14:15Z")
Thanks a lot! Is that documented anywhere? I tried re(A) and im(A) and A.re and A.im which didn’t work…
---
### Author:  [@Oscar\_Smith](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Oscar_Smith)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2023, 4:15pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-split-a-vector-of-complex-into-a-real-and-an-imag-vector/101053/4 "2023-07-01T16:15:12Z")
[Mathematics · The Julia Language](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/base/math/#Base.real) and [Mathematics · The Julia Language](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/base/math/#Base.imag)
---
### Author:  [@ufechner7](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ufechner7)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2023, 4:22pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-split-a-vector-of-complex-into-a-real-and-an-imag-vector/101053/5 "2023-07-01T16:22:15Z")
Thanks again!
---
### Author:  [@rocco\_sprmnt21](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rocco_sprmnt21)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-split-a-vector-of-complex-into-a-real-and-an-imag-vector/101053/6 "2023-07-01T16:30:08Z")
```julia
julia> A[1].
im re
julia> getproperty.(A,:im)
3-element Vector{Float64}:
2.0
2.0
2.0
julia> getproperty.(A,:re)
3-element Vector{Float64}:
1.0
1.0
1.0
```
---
### Author:  [@mkitti](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mkitti)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2023, 6:03am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-split-a-vector-of-complex-into-a-real-and-an-imag-vector/101053/7 "2023-07-02T06:03:53Z")
I’ll point out one other way via `reinterpret`. This allows you to make real and imaginary views of the data without copying.
```julia
julia> B = reinterpret(Float64, A)
6-element reinterpret(Float64, ::Vector{ComplexF64}):
1.0
2.0
1.0
2.0
1.0
2.0
julia> A_real = @view B[1:2:end]
3-element view(reinterpret(Float64, ::Vector{ComplexF64}), 1:2:5) with eltype Float64:
1.0
1.0
1.0
julia> A_imag = @view B[2:2:end]
3-element view(reinterpret(Float64, ::Vector{ComplexF64}), 2:2:6) with eltype Float64:
2.0
2.0
2.0
julia> A[1] = 3 + 5im
3 + 5im
julia> A_real[1]
3.0
julia> A_imag[1]
5.0
```
---
### Author:  [@ericphanson](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ericphanson)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2023, 1:00pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-split-a-vector-of-complex-into-a-real-and-an-imag-vector/101053/8 "2023-07-02T13:00:29Z")
> [@mkitti](#):
>
> This allows you to make real and imaginary views of the data without copying.
Looks like Base already has a function for this: [`reim`](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/base/math/#Base.reim)
---
### Author:  [@mkitti](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mkitti)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2023, 1:14pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-split-a-vector-of-complex-into-a-real-and-an-imag-vector/101053/9 "2023-07-02T13:14:57Z")
I do not think that `reim` produces views. We should make `@view reim(A)` work though.
---
### Author:  [@ericphanson](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ericphanson)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2023, 1:16pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-split-a-vector-of-complex-into-a-real-and-an-imag-vector/101053/10 "2023-07-02T13:16:36Z")
Ah right. I misread the non-copying mention in the docs there.
---
### Author:  [@DNF](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/DNF)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-split-a-vector-of-complex-into-a-real-and-an-imag-vector/101053/11 "2023-07-02T16:30:37Z")
> [@rocco\_sprmnt21](#):
>
> `julia> getproperty.(A,:im)`
Messing about with internal fields, when there are canonical functions for this, is really not advisable.
---
### Author:  [@rocco\_sprmnt21](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rocco_sprmnt21)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2023, 9:01pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-split-a-vector-of-complex-into-a-real-and-an-imag-vector/101053/12 "2023-07-02T21:01:03Z")
Yes sure, fully agree. I just wanted to point out that @ufechner7 came very close in using the ‘re’ and ‘im’ properties and the usefulness of experimenting with the double \ and see what comes up
> [@ufechner7](#):
>
> I tried re(A) and im(A) and A.re and A.im which didn’t work…
---
### Author:  [@aplavin](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/aplavin)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2023, 10:55am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-split-a-vector-of-complex-into-a-real-and-an-imag-vector/101053/13 "2023-07-03T10:55:42Z")
Also see StructArrays: `A = StructArray(...)`, and now you have both an array of complex numbers `A` and its components `A.re` and `A.im`. These two representations share the same memory and operations are often more efficient.