# Julia in VS Code not recognizing Mathematical Italics Unicode characters

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-in-vs-code-not-recognizing-mathematical-italics-unicode-characters/94286>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Tags:** question, unicode\
**Created:** [February 8, 2023, 3:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-in-vs-code-not-recognizing-mathematical-italics-unicode-characters/94286 "2023-02-08T15:24:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cdestael](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/cdestael/32/46700_2.png) [@cdestael](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/cdestael)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2023, 3:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-in-vs-code-not-recognizing-mathematical-italics-unicode-characters/94286/1 "2023-02-08T15:24:28Z")

</div>

Hello, I am working with code from a co-author and in it are various Unicode characters in Mathematical Italics. Unfortunately in the VS Code editor I’m using, it does not seem to recognize when I type \mitx[TAB] or the Code Point (using this link: [Unicode Input · The Julia Language](http://web.mit.edu/julia_v0.6.2/julia/share/doc/julia/html/en/manual/unicode-input.html)).

The REPL recognizes the character when I type:

```julia
codepoint(𝑥)

```

in the terminal and returns the correct code point.

However when I type:

```julia
? 𝑥

```

in the REPL terminal, the following message comes up:

```julia
Binding 𝑥 does not exist.

```

I do not have problems using the TAB shortcut for any other characters such as

```julia
\alpha \beta \scrA \bfA

```

Thank you for your help and suggestions.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nilshg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nilshg/32/2283_2.png) [@nilshg](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nilshg)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2023, 3:31pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-in-vs-code-not-recognizing-mathematical-italics-unicode-characters/94286/2 "2023-02-08T15:31:42Z")

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Works fine for me:

![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/0/2/027e22583952c9ecf60e5d79437f873747d5f742.png)

And in the REPL at the bottom:

![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/d/e/ded1f52040302925257d6c8b7132cd0b839df6dd.png)

The “binding does not exist” message just means that you haven’t assigned anything to the identifier in your current session.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cdestael](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/cdestael/32/46700_2.png) [@cdestael](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/cdestael)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2023, 3:34pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-in-vs-code-not-recognizing-mathematical-italics-unicode-characters/94286/3 "2023-02-08T15:34:49Z")

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Gosh, this was silly on my part. Yes,

```julia
\itx

```

also works for me. I was trying to follow the exact tab complection sequence from here ([Unicode Input · The Julia Language](http://web.mit.edu/julia_v0.6.2/julia/share/doc/julia/html/en/manual/unicode-input.html)), which said to write:

```julia
\mitx

```

Problem solved. Thank you!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nilshg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nilshg/32/2283_2.png) [@nilshg](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nilshg)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2023, 3:40pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-in-vs-code-not-recognizing-mathematical-italics-unicode-characters/94286/4 "2023-02-08T15:40:15Z")

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No worries - never seen the site you linked and no idea why there’s an extra m there, but I recommend just copy-pasting unicode characters into the REPL to quickly work out how to type them:

```julia
help?> 𝑥
"𝑥 " can be typed by \itx<tab>

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cdestael](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/cdestael/32/46700_2.png) [@cdestael](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/cdestael)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2023, 3:51pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-in-vs-code-not-recognizing-mathematical-italics-unicode-characters/94286/5 "2023-02-08T15:51:54Z")

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Thank you!!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cormullion](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/cormullion/32/49131_2.png) [@cormullion](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/cormullion)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2023, 4:08pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-in-vs-code-not-recognizing-mathematical-italics-unicode-characters/94286/6 "2023-02-08T16:08:48Z")

</div>

> [@cdestael](#):
>
> from here ([Unicode Input · The Julia Language](http://web.mit.edu/julia_v0.6.2/julia/share/doc/julia/html/en/manual/unicode-input.html)), which said to write:

that looks like the manual for Julia version 0.6.2. Better to use a more recent version: [Unicode Input · The Julia Language](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/unicode-input/)