# Is this a strange Inconsistency or bug in Julia?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-this-a-strange-inconsistency-or-bug-in-julia/10731>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Created:** [May 5, 2018, 7:35pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-this-a-strange-inconsistency-or-bug-in-julia/10731 "2018-05-05T19:35:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![iwelch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8c91f0/32.png) [@iwelch](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/iwelch)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 7:35pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-this-a-strange-inconsistency-or-bug-in-julia/10731/1 "2018-05-05T19:35:05Z")

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There is something odd about lists of symbols:

```julia
julia> for i in (1,2); println(i); end
1
2

julia> for i in (1); println(i); end
1

julia> for i in (:ab,:cd); println(i); end
ab
cd

julia> for i in (:ab); println(i); end
ERROR: MethodError: no method matching start(::Symbol)
Closest candidates are:
  start(::Core.SimpleVector) at essentials.jl:533
  start(::Base.MethodList) at reflection.jl:690
  start(::ExponentialBackOff) at error.jl:170
  ...
Stacktrace:
 [1] top-level scope at ./<missing>:?

```

the problem is that (:ab) is not (:ab,), and somehow this interferes with the `in` interpretation, but other types do not seem to have this problem.

/iaw

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fredrikekre](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/fredrikekre/32/1688_2.png) [@fredrikekre](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/fredrikekre)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 7:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-this-a-strange-inconsistency-or-bug-in-julia/10731/2 "2018-05-05T19:46:10Z")

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This works as intended; `Number`s are iterable, `Symbols` are not.