# Julia function help page

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-function-help-page/37605>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [April 15, 2020, 1:39am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-function-help-page/37605 "2020-04-15T01:39:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jing\_Zhang](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jing_zhang/32/13737_2.png) [@Jing\_Zhang](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Jing_Zhang)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 1:39am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-function-help-page/37605/1 "2020-04-15T01:39:45Z")

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Dear experienced Julia users,

Does Julia offer a help page like R?

In R, if you type ?function\_name, a help page will show up with explanations of all arguments and some examples.

In Julia, however, if I type ?function\_name, I can only see how to use the function. Where can I find some examples on how to use the functions.

Thanks a lot!

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**Author:** ![xiaodai](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/xiaodai/32/15937_2.png) [@xiaodai](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/xiaodai)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 1:46am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-function-help-page/37605/2 "2020-04-15T01:46:32Z")

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This is what I see when I get help on `DataFrame`. See how there’s an example in the bottom? So I think it depends on the package author and whether they put examples into their docstring or not.

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/b/4/b4508129bffd8e0e2d09be4b86052ddb2adb9fc0.png)

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**Author:** ![Jing\_Zhang](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jing_zhang/32/13737_2.png) [@Jing\_Zhang](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Jing_Zhang)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 1:54am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-function-help-page/37605/3 "2020-04-15T01:54:53Z")

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OK. I guess then I have to google instead since the function I am looking at doesn’t offer examples. Thanks!

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**Author:** ![Oscar\_Smith](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/oscar_smith/32/25343_2.png) [@Oscar\_Smith](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Oscar_Smith)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 2:14am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-function-help-page/37605/4 "2020-04-15T02:14:05Z")

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Note that if you ever come across functions you think could be documented better, this is a major place where new users can significantly benefit Julia as a whole. It’s hard for people who have used Julia for years to improve the documentation since they usually aren’t looking at it very much, and the things they need to know aren’t always the things a newcomer needs help with. PRs for docs are always greatly appreciated and are usually pretty easy to get merged quickly.

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**Author:** ![xiaodai](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/xiaodai/32/15937_2.png) [@xiaodai](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/xiaodai)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 2:36am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-function-help-page/37605/5 "2020-04-15T02:36:27Z")

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> [@Jing\_Zhang](#):
>
> google instead

You tend to get pretty good answers here if the google doesn’t turn up anything.

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**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 6:38am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-function-help-page/37605/6 "2020-04-15T06:38:40Z")

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> [@Jing\_Zhang](#):
>
> In Julia, however, if I type ?function\_name, I can only see how to use the function. Where can I find some examples on how to use the functions.

Some functions have examples; this is encouraged but not (yet) as prevalent as in the R ecosystem.

Well-documented packages have some kind of intro/tutorial section in their documentation, which is usually linked from the (Github) repository of the package.

Of course, for work in progress or less well-maintained packages even the docs may not exist. Unit tests (in the `test/` directory) may be helpful in figuring out intended usage.

Most packages welcome contributions for documentation (in the form of PRs). As @Oscar_Smith suggested, newcomers to a package are usually in the best position to make these.