# Why is Ref() not reflecting the changes

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-ref-not-reflecting-the-changes/130740>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Tags:** question, ref\
**Created:** [July 15, 2025, 1:00pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-ref-not-reflecting-the-changes/130740 "2025-07-15T13:00:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Farouk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@Farouk](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Farouk)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 1:00pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-ref-not-reflecting-the-changes/130740/1 "2025-07-15T13:00:18Z")

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Hello I am playing with the `Ref{T}` and I cannot understand why when doing some updates the changes are visible via the variable holding the `Ref` and when doing other updates they don’t show up. I would appreciate your help thank you 😃.

```julia
mutable struct CommBoard
    orders::Array{Int,1}

    function CommBoard()
        new(Array{Int,1}([]))
    end
end

comm = CommBoard()
comm.orders = [20,35]
mycomm = Ref(comm)

function init_comm(comm::CommBoard)
    comm.orders = []
    return nothing
end

init_comm(comm)
println(comm) #returns CommBoard(Int64[])
println(mycomm[]) #returns CommBoard(Int64[])

comm.orders = [20,35]
println(comm) #returns CommBoard(Int64[20,35])
println(mycomm[]) #returns CommBoard(Int64[])

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AntonReinhard](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/antonreinhard/32/211306_2.png) [@AntonReinhard](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/AntonReinhard)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 1:30pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-ref-not-reflecting-the-changes/130740/2 "2025-07-15T13:30:41Z")

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If I just copy paste your code into the REPL I get what you (and I) would expect, not what you wrote:

```julia
julia> mutable struct CommBoard
           orders::Array{Int,1}

           function CommBoard()
               new(Array{Int,1}([]))
           end
       end

julia> comm = CommBoard()
CommBoard(Int64[])

julia> comm.orders = [20,35]
2-element Vector{Int64}:
 20
 35

julia> mycomm = Ref(comm)
Base.RefValue{CommBoard}(CommBoard([20, 35]))

julia> function init_comm(comm::CommBoard)
           comm.orders = []
           return nothing
       end
init_comm (generic function with 1 method)

julia> init_comm(comm)

julia> println(comm) #returns CommBoard(Int64[])
CommBoard(Int64[])

julia> println(mycomm[]) #returns CommBoard(Int64[])
CommBoard(Int64[])

julia> comm.orders = [20,35]
2-element Vector{Int64}:
 20
 35

julia> println(comm) #returns CommBoard(Int64[20,35])
CommBoard([20, 35])

julia> println(mycomm[]) #returns CommBoard(Int64[])
CommBoard([20, 35])

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Farouk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@Farouk](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Farouk)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 1:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-ref-not-reflecting-the-changes/130740/3 "2025-07-15T13:57:41Z")

</div>

Thank I just restarted the Julia instance and it works as expected after I isolate I think another piece of code is interfering with it. Because It is not a a real problem I will just delete the post as I don’t see any value from it. Thank you very much for your response. (Like the reply so I can delete the post)