# Why does Base.retry return a function?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-does-base-retry-return-a-function/26240>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Tags:** question\
**Created:** [July 10, 2019, 9:08pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-does-base-retry-return-a-function/26240 "2019-07-10T21:08:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![anon43133060](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/57b2e6/32.png) [@anon43133060](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/anon43133060)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2019, 9:08pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-does-base-retry-return-a-function/26240/1 "2019-07-10T21:08:41Z")

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I was expecting `Base.retry(f)` to just do the work, but instead it was `Base.retry(f)()`.

Is this the only function in `Base` that returns another function?

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**Author:** ![jling](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jling/32/212909_2.png) [@jling](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jling)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2019, 11:16pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-does-base-retry-return-a-function/26240/2 "2019-07-10T23:16:24Z")

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`Base.identity` also returns you whatever you have