# \`show\` methods for types

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/show-methods-for-types/32578>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [December 22, 2019, 2:25pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/show-methods-for-types/32578 "2019-12-22T14:25:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cscherrer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/cscherrer/32/7631_2.png) [@cscherrer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/cscherrer)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 2:25pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/show-methods-for-types/32578/1 "2019-12-22T14:25:55Z")

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In [this issue](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/24195#issuecomment-337744534), @jeff.bezanson advises that we shouldn’t override how types are printed. But in some cases, particularly for type-level representations as @thautwarm is developing (and are used heavily in Soss), the default methods are way too verbose to be useful. Especially for interactive use, it’s critical to have a reasonable representation of types.

Jeff, has your opinion or advice changed on this? I understand your concern that a bug in displaying types could make debugging impossible. Is there a “safe” way to do this?

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**Author:** ![longemen3000](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/longemen3000/32/7298_2.png) [@longemen3000](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/longemen3000)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 3:40pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/show-methods-for-types/32578/2 "2019-12-22T15:40:23Z")

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To add on this, the overloading of the `show` method was one of the causes for constant crashes on the VScode Julia plugin.  
In my opinion, a possible solution for this could be similar to how `getfield` - `getproperty` works, using one to print the hierarchy of types (by default) and another to be available for overloading.