# Performance of \`Meta.parse\` and \`eval\`

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/performance-of-meta-parse-and-eval/52061>\
**Category:** Performance\
**Tags:** metaprogramming\
**Created:** [December 18, 2020, 5:18pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/performance-of-meta-parse-and-eval/52061 "2020-12-18T17:18:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [December 18, 2020, 5:25pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/performance-of-meta-parse-and-eval/52061/2 "2020-12-18T17:25:46Z")

</div>

The most basic answer is that you should almost never represent expressions as strings. Unless you are trying to write an interpreter, there is almost always a better way to solve the problem.

---

_[View the full topic](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/performance-of-meta-parse-and-eval/52061)._