# Is it possible to use x² to mean taking square x^2

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-it-possible-to-use-x-to-mean-taking-square-x-2/76137>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [February 10, 2022, 1:50am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-it-possible-to-use-x-to-mean-taking-square-x-2/76137 "2022-02-10T01:50:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

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**Author:** ![stillyslalom](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stillyslalom/32/45687_2.png) [@stillyslalom](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stillyslalom)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 2:42am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-it-possible-to-use-x-to-mean-taking-square-x-2/76137/5 "2022-02-10T02:42:26Z")

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You can find those operators here: [julia/julia-parser.scm at master · JuliaLang/julia · GitHub](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/blob/master/src/julia-parser.scm)

Because superscripts are already allowed for variable names, making them act as exponents (or ᵀ for transpose) would be a breaking change and would violate semantic versioning if done prior to v2.0. At its [current stage of development](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/psa-julia-is-not-at-that-stage-of-development-anymore/44872), Julia is unlikely to add new syntax sugar except in cases where it _does not_ cause a breaking change. As demonstrated by Python 2 → Python 3 migration hell, language developers need to be very conservative with breaking changes to limit the cost they impose on users.

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