# Max and maximum: why the difference?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/max-and-maximum-why-the-difference/3113>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [April 8, 2017, 1:09am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/max-and-maximum-why-the-difference/3113 "2017-04-08T01:09:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![yuyichao](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/yuyichao/32/20_2.png) [@yuyichao](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/yuyichao)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 1:31am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/max-and-maximum-why-the-difference/3113/2 "2017-04-08T01:31:44Z")

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This would be really confusing. It’s better to just use two functions rather than trying to guess what should the function do. See [Merging `max` and `maximum` · Issue #11872 · JuliaLang/julia · GitHub](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/11872#issuecomment-243947437)

> [@anon94023334](#):
>
> max has deprecated behavior in that it will operate on collections in an element-wise order.

The deprecated behavior has been, well, deprecated so it’s irrelevant now.

> [@anon94023334](#):
>
> This is inconsistent: max(5) returns (the possibly-expected) 5, but max([1,2,3]) does not return [1,2,3], nor does max(“a”) return a.

It’s not inconsistent. The “inconsistency” is that some types are comparable and some are not.

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