# Using Symbol within function (unexpected behaviour)
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-symbol-within-function-unexpected-behaviour/24029
**Category:** New to Julia
**Created:** [May 9, 2019, 12:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-symbol-within-function-unexpected-behaviour/24029 "2019-05-09T12:55:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dgs](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dgs)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2019, 12:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-symbol-within-function-unexpected-behaviour/24029/1 "2019-05-09T12:55:53Z")
Hello,
I am currently running some simulations and would like to serialize some parameters for the model.
Using symbols I thought I could get away with a concise way of writing it :
```julia
c, d = 1, 2
serialize(open("save1.sl","w"),Dict(string(x)=>eval(x) for x=[:c,:d]))
```
But ran into an unexpected behaviour when running the same code inside a function
```julia
using Serialization
function test()
a ,b = 1
serialize(open("save2.sl","w"),Dict(string(x)=>eval(x) for x=[:a,:b])) # ERROR: LoadError: UndefVarError: a not defined
end
test() # fails a is undefined
```
This seems like a trivial issue but I couldn’t find any help within the documentation…
Thanks in advance for your help!
---
### Author:  [@rdeits](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rdeits)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2019, 1:40pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-symbol-within-function-unexpected-behaviour/24029/2 "2019-05-09T13:40:15Z")
`eval()` always operates in _global scope_. Check out the help text:
```nohighlight
help?> eval
...
eval(expr)
Evaluate an expression in the global scope of the containing module. ...
```
Since `eval()` operates in global scope, it does not have access to the values of your local variables.
Since Julia 1.1, though, we have the `Base.@locals()` macro, which gives you a dictionary mapping local variable names to their local values. Your use case might be a good fit for that:
```julia
julia> function foo()
a = 1
println(Base.@locals())
end
foo (generic function with 1 method)
julia> foo()
Dict{Symbol,Any}(:a=>1)
```
---
### Author:  [@dgs](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dgs)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2019, 3:39pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-symbol-within-function-unexpected-behaviour/24029/3 "2019-05-09T15:39:37Z")
> [@rdeits](#):
>
> `Base.@locals()` macro, which gives you a dictionary mapping local variable names to their local values. Your use case might be a good fit for that:
Great! I completely missed out that eval was operating on the global scope. Thanks for your help!