# Strange output using SymPy

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/strange-output-using-sympy/16678>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [October 23, 2018, 12:11pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/strange-output-using-sympy/16678 "2018-10-23T12:11:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![yordiak](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/yordiak/32/12584_2.png) [@yordiak](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/yordiak)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2018, 12:11pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/strange-output-using-sympy/16678/1 "2018-10-23T12:11:32Z")

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_Declaration: Not sure if this the right topic_

I am experiencing the following bug (MWE):

```julia
using SymPy

x=Sym("x")
@vars a

f(a)=a*x
f(2)

```

It prints a “strange” box between “2” and “x”

I am using Julia 1.0.1 on windows 10 64bit

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**Author:** ![j\_verzani](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/j_verzani/32/8551_2.png) [@j\_verzani](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/j_verzani)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2018, 2:06pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/strange-output-using-sympy/16678/2 "2018-10-23T14:06:02Z")

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> [@yordiak](#):
>
> x=Sym(“x”) @vars a f(a)=a\*x f(2)

There is supposed to be a small dot indicating multiplication, but likely it isn’t rendering properly. Do other unicode fonts work for you?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![yordiak](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/yordiak/32/12584_2.png) [@yordiak](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/yordiak)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 12:28pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/strange-output-using-sympy/16678/3 "2018-10-24T12:28:16Z")

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The problem persists if I include multiplication mark, " \* ". I didn’t try other character…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![j\_verzani](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/j_verzani/32/8551_2.png) [@j\_verzani](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/j_verzani)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 3:04pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/strange-output-using-sympy/16678/4 "2018-10-24T15:04:21Z")

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By default, `show` will call `sympy["pretty"](a*x)` Can you see if you have better output with `sympy["pretty"](a*x, use_unicode=false)`? I’m still guessing the unicode display is the issue.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![yordiak](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/yordiak/32/12584_2.png) [@yordiak](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/yordiak)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 9:09pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/strange-output-using-sympy/16678/5 "2018-10-24T21:09:08Z")

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Yes you are right!

If I set `use_unicode=false`, then I get `a*x` and the “strange” box disappears

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**Author:** ![ckoe-bccms](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ckoe-bccms/32/1816_2.png) [@ckoe-bccms](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ckoe-bccms)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 9:21am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/strange-output-using-sympy/16678/6 "2018-10-25T09:21:26Z")

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Hello,

actually this can even happen with “normal” julia output. Some time ago I had a problem with the output of btime which was off. It turned out that the terminal font (on linux) I used for the REPL did not contain a glyph for the \mu greek letter that the REPL was trying to display. Instead I got a blank output character displayed. So, watch out for your fonts !

Best Regards