# Why did I use \`local\`?

**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-did-i-use-local/49381
**Category:** General Usage
**Tags:** function
**Created:** [October 31, 2020, 7:11pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-did-i-use-local/49381 "2020-10-31T19:11:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![stla](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stla/32/20382_2.png) [@stla](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stla)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2020, 7:11pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-did-i-use-local/49381/1 "2020-10-31T19:11:58Z")

</div>

Hello,

I’m trying to refresh an old code of mine, about 5 years old. I found this function:

```julia
## sort array M with respect to colon j
function sortbycol(M,j)
  local col, perm
  col = M[:,j]
  perm = sortperm(col)[2]
  return(M[perm,:])
end

```

I don’t remember why I used `local`. Is it a good practice? Or is it useless? Or what?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Palli](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/palli/32/3380_2.png) [@Palli](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Palli)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2020, 8:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-did-i-use-local/49381/2 "2020-10-31T20:03:52Z")

</div>

It seems to be about hard vs soft scope see here, about changing then back:  
[https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/variables-and-scoping/](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/variables-and-scoping/)

> Disambiguate by using `local`s to suppress this warning

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![kristoffer.carlsson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kristoffer.carlsson/32/22_2.png) [@kristoffer.carlsson](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kristoffer.carlsson)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2020, 8:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-did-i-use-local/49381/3 "2020-10-31T20:46:51Z")

</div>

Likely useless.