# Why does scientific notation break the range function?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-does-scientific-notation-break-the-range-function/80014>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Created:** [April 25, 2022, 8:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-does-scientific-notation-break-the-range-function/80014 "2022-04-25T20:46:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chadagreene](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/chadagreene/32/34924_2.png) [@chadagreene](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/chadagreene)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 9:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-does-scientific-notation-break-the-range-function/80014/5 "2022-04-25T21:12:26Z")

</div>

I must confess, `Union{Nothing, Integer}` is complete nonsense to me.

The entire error message, including the first line, is unnecessarily cryptic and overly complicated for such a simple issue. Even the first line of the message requires users to understand multiple Julia commands well enough to effectively compute code in their head.

Even as I now understand what the first line is _trying_ to say, I cannot understand how `Union{Nothing, Integer}` is the same thing as saying `Int`. To figure this out, I find myself searching the docs for `Nothing`, and find this:

```julia
help?> Nothing
search: Nothing nothing isnothing

  Nothing

  A type with no fields that is the type of nothing.

  See also: isnothing, Some, Missing.

```

So tell me, what part of this error message is helpful to users who may innocently use `1e3` to represent the number `1000`?

---

_[View the full topic](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-does-scientific-notation-break-the-range-function/80014)._