# Insert missing/nan elements in BitMatrix

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/insert-missing-nan-elements-in-bitmatrix/60179>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [April 28, 2021, 4:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/insert-missing-nan-elements-in-bitmatrix/60179 "2021-04-28T16:24:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Emmanouil\_Bakirtzis](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/emmanouil_bakirtzis/32/11456_2.png) [@Emmanouil\_Bakirtzis](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Emmanouil_Bakirtzis)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 4:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/insert-missing-nan-elements-in-bitmatrix/60179/1 "2021-04-28T16:24:04Z")

</div>

In Julia 1.6, I create a boolean array

```julia
x= trues(3,2)

```

and I want to reflect that an element is missing (or nan if it is compatible). I tried the following but they return errors

```julia
x[2,2] = missing
x[2,2] = NaN

```

Is there a way to do that?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jling](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jling/32/212909_2.png) [@jling](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jling)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 4:28pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/insert-missing-nan-elements-in-bitmatrix/60179/2 "2021-04-28T16:28:42Z")

</div>

```julia
x= convert(Matrix{Any}, trues(3,2))

```

(if you just need `missing` I may recommend `Matrix{Union{Bool, Missing}}`)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chris-b1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/chris-b1/32/14165_2.png) [@chris-b1](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/chris-b1)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 4:28pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/insert-missing-nan-elements-in-bitmatrix/60179/3 "2021-04-28T16:28:48Z")

</div>

A BitMatrix can only store bits, so you need to convert your data to a type capable of holding missing values.

```julia
julia> x = convert(Matrix{Union{Missing, Bool}}, x)
3×2 Matrix{Union{Missing, Bool}}:
 true true
 true true
 true true

julia> x[2, 2] = missing
missing

julia> x
3×2 Matrix{Union{Missing, Bool}}:
 true true
 true missing
 true true

```