# Printing of an Expr seems wrong

**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/printing-of-an-expr-seems-wrong/40051
**Category:** General Usage
**Tags:** metaprogramming
**Created:** [May 24, 2020, 2:39am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/printing-of-an-expr-seems-wrong/40051 "2020-05-24T02:39:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Stephan\_Meyn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stephan_meyn/32/13928_2.png) [@Stephan\_Meyn](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Stephan_Meyn)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2020, 2:39am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/printing-of-an-expr-seems-wrong/40051/1 "2020-05-24T02:39:28Z")

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I have an EXPR.  
dump() shows up as follows:

```julia
dump(x)
Expr
 head: Symbol ::
 args: Array{Any}((2,))
   1: Symbol afield
   2: Symbol Union{Nothing, Int32}

```

put print shows up as:

```julia
 print(x)
afield::var"Union{Nothing, Int32}"

```

shouldn’t that show up as:

```julia
 print(x)
afield::Union{Nothing, Int32}

```

?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### 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: [May 24, 2020, 5:16am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/printing-of-an-expr-seems-wrong/40051/2 "2020-05-24T05:16:32Z")

</div>

No, because what you have is **not** a `afield::Union{Nothing, Int32}`. As you can see in the dump, the `Union{Nothing, Int32}` comes as a single symbol.

You can check what it should be with `dump(:(afield::Union{Nothing, Int32}))`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Stephan\_Meyn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stephan_meyn/32/13928_2.png) [@Stephan\_Meyn](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Stephan_Meyn)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2020, 5:18am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/printing-of-an-expr-seems-wrong/40051/3 "2020-05-24T05:18:16Z")

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thanks. much appreciated