# Julia Tab Completion is Slow in directories with many items

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-tab-completion-is-slow-in-directories-with-many-items/121156>\
**Category:** Performance\
**Created:** [October 10, 2024, 3:09pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-tab-completion-is-slow-in-directories-with-many-items/121156 "2024-10-10T15:09:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![natgeo-wong](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/natgeo-wong/32/10965_2.png) [@natgeo-wong](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/natgeo-wong)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2024, 3:09pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-tab-completion-is-slow-in-directories-with-many-items/121156/1 "2024-10-10T15:09:58Z")

</div>

In the REPL, when I try to use strings, REPL keeps hanging in directories with many items.

I have a directory with around 400+ items, all of which are dates from 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31, and Julia keeps hanging (and is very slow to autocomplete) when I try to define strings.

For example

```julia
fnc = "2020-01-01"

```

Julia REPL keeps hanging at

```julia
fnc = "

```

Update: `pkg>` also has problems

```julia
(@v1.11) pkg> activate 

```

hangs after the space after activate.