# Status of question mark syntax for missing values

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/status-of-question-mark-syntax-for-missing-values/27189>\
**Category:** Internals & Design\
**Created:** [August 5, 2019, 9:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/status-of-question-mark-syntax-for-missing-values/27189 "2019-08-05T21:42:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![juliohm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/juliohm/32/215266_2.png) [@juliohm](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/juliohm)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2019, 9:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/status-of-question-mark-syntax-for-missing-values/27189/1 "2019-08-05T21:42:33Z")

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I remember seeing a discussion somewhere about using the syntax `T?` to mean `Union{T,Missing}`. What was the outcome of this discussion? I personally find the syntax very clever, and it would help clean up a lot of code where we need to pre-allocate memory with missing values.

```julia
buff = Array{Union{T,Missing},2}(undef, 100) where T # too verbose
buff = Array{T?,2}(undef, 100) where T # much cleaner

```

I remember also that some people started discussing the semantics of `T?`, and suggested that it could also mean `Union{T,Nothing}`. I personally find this type not very useful. The only places it shows up are in method signatures with optional arguments, and maybe in optional fields of a struct. The vast majority of applications in the scientific domain seem to handle missing values more often than the “optional” semantics.

Could you please share your thoughts and plans about this shortcut syntax? Any chance it will make to Julia v1.3?

I am starting to treat missing values seriously in my packages, and my code can become much uglier with the `Union{T,Missing}` everywhere.

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**Author:** ![StefanKarpinski](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stefankarpinski/32/24_2.png) [@StefanKarpinski](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/StefanKarpinski)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2019, 10:00pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/status-of-question-mark-syntax-for-missing-values/27189/2 "2019-08-05T22:00:29Z")

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For a while I was pretty ambivalent about whether we should use `T?` for `Union{T, Nothing}` or for `Union{T, Missing}`. The code I read and write has much more `Union{T, Nothing}` in it than `Union{T, Missing}`. However, I’ve come back around to wanting it to mean `Union{T, Missing}` for one very key reason: we need a way to express lifting of functions to the `Union{T, Missing}` domain. What I mean by that is that instead of every couple of days getting a new feature request for missing support for the `atanh` function or whatever, I’d like to just make `atanh?` lift the `atanh` function so that it returns `missing` when any of its arguments are `missing`. We don’t need this feature for `nothing` since the whole point of `nothing` is that it doesn’t lift, whereas the point of `missing` is to lift. We might also want a `@?` macro similar to the `@.` macro, which annotates all function calls with `?` lifting.

How do `f?` and `T?` mesh? Quite well, actually, if you view the `T` constructor as a function that returns values of type `T`—then `T?` is a function that returns values of type `Union{T, Missing}` which is exactly what function lifting is supposed to do. Of course, you still want this to be represented as the union type, `Union{T, Missing}`, so you just need to make sure that the type, when called, does the lifted version of `T`. @jameson had some thoughts on this and might be able to say a bit more.

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**Author:** ![jameson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jameson/32/23_2.png) [@jameson](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jameson)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2019, 10:29pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/status-of-question-mark-syntax-for-missing-values/27189/3 "2019-08-05T22:29:15Z")

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> since the whole point of `nothing` is that it doesn’t lift

The point is to ensure it propagates explicitly, tending to poison results uniformly and potentially lift any function over it with explicit syntax

I’m almost ready to reveal my heretical thought that we should define `const nothing = missing`, and then add all this syntax for it. But perhaps give it another year before I say a bit more.

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**Author:** ![bkamins](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/bkamins/32/208538_2.png) [@bkamins](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/bkamins)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2019, 10:40pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/status-of-question-mark-syntax-for-missing-values/27189/4 "2019-08-05T22:40:47Z")

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An interesting point. If I understand this correctly the question is when would we want an `Union{Nothing, Missing}` or `Union{Nothing, Missing, T}`. The only common pattern when it occurs is:

```julia
julia> using Missings

julia> x = ["a", "b", missing]
3-element Array{Union{Missing, String},1}:
 "a"
 "b"
 missing

julia> passmissing(match).(r"a", x)
3-element Array{Any,1}:
 RegexMatch("a")
 nothing
 missing

```

AFAICT

Another use of `?` syntax (if we decided to go for `missing` with it) is that then we could print `?` (possibly using a different color in REPL) instead of `missing` when we show tabular data (similarly to the change in the way we now show `Bool` in some cases).

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**Author:** ![tkf](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tkf/32/17635_2.png) [@tkf](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tkf)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2019, 10:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/status-of-question-mark-syntax-for-missing-values/27189/5 "2019-08-05T22:57:26Z")

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> [@bkamins](#):
>
> If I understand this correctly the question is when would we want an `Union{Nothing, Missing}` or `Union{Nothing, Missing, T}` .

How about defining `?` to be an ordinary function (when it’s not used as `if`)? It would let you use different `?` locally (like you can do it with, e.g., `*`):

```julia
let ? = passmissing
    match?.(r"a", x)
end

```

It may also be nice to be able define arbitrary lifting functions (say) using unicode combining characters:

```julia
const ?̃ = mylift

f?̃(x)

```

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**Author:** ![juliohm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/juliohm/32/215266_2.png) [@juliohm](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/juliohm)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 11:24am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/status-of-question-mark-syntax-for-missing-values/27189/6 "2019-09-17T11:24:22Z")

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Any update on this issue? Maybe a GitHub issue tracking the discussion?

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**Author:** ![juliohm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/juliohm/32/215266_2.png) [@juliohm](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/juliohm)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2020, 7:07pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/status-of-question-mark-syntax-for-missing-values/27189/7 "2020-07-12T19:07:11Z")

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Issue opened: [https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/36628](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/36628)