# Include mystery

**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/include-mystery/22360
**Category:** General Usage
**Created:** [March 26, 2019, 4:20pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/include-mystery/22360 "2019-03-26T16:20:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 12

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### Author: ![greg\_plowman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/greg_plowman/32/8100_2.png) [@greg\_plowman](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/greg_plowman)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2019, 4:41am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/include-mystery/22360/12 "2019-03-27T04:41:58Z")

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I must confess to being tripped up by misunderstanding exactly what `include` does. Indeed, I think it is a common misconception.

I can’t help but feel that it is partly due to the name `include` which might be associated with pre-processor directives in other languages. And it is commonly used for the same or similar functionality.

For me the name `eval_file` would help remind me that it is a normal function executed at run time and which `eval`s the contents of the file (in global scope since it is a normal function). Similarly, `include_string` could be named `eval_string`.

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