# What is the difference between the functions "big.", "big", "BigFloat"?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-the-functions-big-big-bigfloat/67205>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Created:** [August 28, 2021, 6:03am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-the-functions-big-big-bigfloat/67205 "2021-08-28T06:03:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![qdmj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/eb9ed0/32.png) [@qdmj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/qdmj)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2021, 6:03am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-the-functions-big-big-bigfloat/67205/1 "2021-08-28T06:03:03Z")

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What is the difference between the functions “big.”, “big”, “BigFloat”?  
By the way, is there a method to find descriptions of a function? It’s so troublesome to ask for every functions I haven’t seen.

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**Author:** ![Sukera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sukera](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Sukera)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2021, 6:18am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-the-functions-big-big-bigfloat/67205/2 "2021-08-28T06:18:26Z")

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`big.(collection)` is [broadcasting](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/arrays/#Broadcasting) the regular [`big` function](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/base/numbers/#Base.big). It’s not a different function. [`BigFloat`](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/base/numbers/#BigFloats-and-BigInts) is a type.

You can find documentation for functions by using the [REPL help mode](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/stdlib/REPL/#Help-mode) or by using the search bar in [the manual](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/) (if you haven’t given the manual a skim/read yet, I recommend doing so - it’s not that long and explains a lot of julian things).

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**Author:** ![Sukera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sukera](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Sukera)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2021, 6:29am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-the-functions-big-big-bigfloat/67205/3 "2021-08-28T06:29:38Z")

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By the way, you can use single backticks (`) to mark text in discourse inline as code by surrounding the text you want to mark with them (looks like `this`). You can also mark bigger blocks as code with triple backticks (```). Makes it a lot easier to read the code you’re posting.

```julia
triple backticks
look like
this

```