# Vectorize replace with Vector of String raises DimensionMismatch

**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/vectorize-replace-with-vector-of-string-raises-dimensionmismatch/31521
**Category:** General Usage
**Created:** [November 26, 2019, 8:59am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/vectorize-replace-with-vector-of-string-raises-dimensionmismatch/31521 "2019-11-26T08:59:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![scelles](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/scelles/32/220408_2.png) [@scelles](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/scelles)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2019, 8:59am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/vectorize-replace-with-vector-of-string-raises-dimensionmismatch/31521/1 "2019-11-26T08:59:06Z")

</div>

Hello,

I’m trying to replace coma with point in the following Vector of String

```julia
julia> a = ["0,309042 46,586349 111,4", "0,309042 46,586349 111,1", "0,309042 46,586349 111,3"]
3-element Array{String,1}:
 "0,309042 46,586349 111,4"
 "0,309042 46,586349 111,1"
 "0,309042 46,586349 111,3"

julia> replace(a, ","=>".")
3-element Array{String,1}:
 "0,309042 46,586349 111,4"
 "0,309042 46,586349 111,1"
 "0,309042 46,586349 111,3"

julia> replace.(a, ","=>".")
ERROR: DimensionMismatch("arrays could not be broadcast to a common size")
Stacktrace:
 [1] _bcs1 at ./broadcast.jl:485 [inlined]
 [2] _bcs at ./broadcast.jl:479 [inlined]
 [3] broadcast_shape at ./broadcast.jl:473 [inlined]
 [4] combine_axes at ./broadcast.jl:468 [inlined]
 [5] instantiate at ./broadcast.jl:256 [inlined]
 [6] materialize(::Base.Broadcast.Broadcasted{Base.Broadcast.DefaultArrayStyle{1},Nothing,typeof(replace),Tuple{Array{String,1},Array{String,1}}}) at ./broadcast.jl:798
 [7] top-level scope at REPL[42]:1

```

But it doesn’t seem to be possible.

Any idea why it’s failling?

Using list comprehension can be a workaround

```julia
[replace(c, ","=>".") for c in a]

```

but I would like to understand why broadcasting doesn’t work and raises

```julia
ERROR: DimensionMismatch("arrays could not be broadcast to a common size")

```

Kind regards

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![fredrikekre](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/fredrikekre/32/1688_2.png) [@fredrikekre](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/fredrikekre)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2019, 9:37am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/vectorize-replace-with-vector-of-string-raises-dimensionmismatch/31521/2 "2019-11-26T09:37:10Z")

</div>

Since `Pair`s are also iterable you need to “protect” the pair from broadcasting with `Ref`, which makes it behave like a scalar instead:

```julia
julia> a = ["0,309042 46,586349 111,4", "0,309042 46,586349 111,1", "0,309042 46,586349 111,3"];

julia> replace.(a, Ref(","=>"."))
3-element Array{String,1}:
 "0.309042 46.586349 111.4"
 "0.309042 46.586349 111.1"
 "0.309042 46.586349 111.3"

```

Note, however, that in Julia 1.3 and later `Pair`s are treated as scalars by default, so the `Ref` is not needed there, see [https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/32209](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/32209).